


Hidden Valkyrie: Episode 2

by Celticas



Series: Hidden Valkyrie [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 01, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-08-09 22:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16458581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celticas/pseuds/Celticas
Summary: With a foot in the door, will SHIELD really accept a rogue hacker on one of their teams?





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> I probably won't be updating this until December as I am going to be doing NaNoWriMo this year (or trying to).  
> UPDATE: I have decided to work on this universe for NaNo. I have this episode done and have started on the next interlude which is shaping up to be a long one. I still won't be updating until after November as I want the chance to go back and edit. I'm also thinking about doing an edit and re-post of the first episode but that probably won't be for a while.  
> Bonus I have also made quite a few decisions about the longer story that I had been struggling with so that should hopefully keep motivation going for a while.

Phil Coulson looked at the pages of a digital file spread across the command centre's touch screen table. Skye's intake photo from when they had first picked her up glared at him in silent judgement. Asking him why he felt the need to pry into her life, her history, as little of it as there was. The senior gent flicked another page to cover the photo before continuing to add notations to the file. The few things he had observed of the young woman's personality, and skills went into the large blank swathes of the document.

The never ending need to update SHIELD's paperwork was interrupted by Agent grant Ward. The glower at the sight of the file Phil was working on, turned the blandly handsome man's face sour.

"Skye?" Grant broke the silence that Phil had been enjoying. "That girl isn’t qualified to be a SHIELD agent." The younger man took the last step up to the table and began idly flicking through the scant pages, even though he had seen it all before.

"Agreed." Coulson answered without look up from what he was doing, his typing continuing un-interrupted. "That's why I've invited her on as a consultant."

May's sound of disbelief was the first indication of her presence in the room, startling Ward. Coulson just smiled slightly down at his paperwork, he had been friends with Melinda long enough that her tendency to sneak up on people no longer caught him out.

"SHIELD does it all the time." He answered her unasked question. "Technically, Stark's a consultant." He finally looked up from the screen to meet May's eye.

"And technically Skye is a member of the Rising Tide." Grant added, his sarcastic twist to technically underscored his displeasure. "She hacked our RSA implementation-"

Coulson broke off Grant's argument, "Twice. From a laptop." He looked at the other two agents, giving them a second to allow that to truly sink in. "Image what she'll do with our resources."

"I am. That's exactly what I'm imagining." Ward grumbled, glaring at Skye's photo that he had uncovered. “You brought me in for risk assessment. She is a risk. She doesn't think like us."

Grant's continued dissent brought a bright smile to Phil's face. "Exactly."

May did not like that smile on Phil's face, it was his this might be a bad idea, but I am going to stick with it because if it worked the outcome would be spectacular, and also fuck you. Unfortunately, she had only seen him fail to back that smile up once in the two decades that they had known each other, and that single time wasn't his fault it was Agent Goldwin's who had well and truly paid for it by the end of that FUBAR mission. That didn't mean she wouldn't try and talk him out of it now, Skye was an unknown quantity and the reason she was on the plane in the first place was because people much further up the food chain were doubting Phil's ability to think clearly.

"We have two kids on this Bus who aren't cleared for combat, you're adding a third. We won't be able to protect all of them." She tried appealing to his over grown sense of responsibility.

"At least Fitz-Simmons are trained SHIELD scientists." Ward took over. "But Skye? You said this was a select team. Assembled to work new cases, to protect people. I don't see how letting some teenage hacker tag along - "

"I'm looking for an objection I haven't already anticipated." Coulson stopped Ward, his voice flinty. His hard gaze tacked Ward in place, daring him to continue trying to argue. When the specialist stayed silent, Coulson turned his sharp blue eyes on May. "I'm calling this. But your frown will be on record." He shut her down before she could even open her mouth again.

Silence descended on the three agents as they each stewed in their own angry thoughts. Coulson returning to Skye's file, Ward left the command centre and settled with his tablet in the small lounge area to check his email, and May started flicking through the maintenance records of the plane on a corner of the table.

Ward had moved on from his email to flicking through an electronic copy of Sun Tzu's _Art of War_ when an alert lit up his screen. Clicking into the tab Ward sped read the mission outline before taking it to Coulson. "We've been called in to investigate an 0-8-4." He handed the tablet to his boss to see the intel.

Coulson flicks through the document before the tablet continued its turn as a pass the parcel, being handed off to May.

"We don't know what this means, so make sure you and the rest of the team is ready for anything."

May nods and walks out to prepare for lift-off. Their flight clearance was being sorted out by SHIELD admin and by the time she was ready, they would be to.

= + =

Watching a low-level SHIELD agent drive away, Skye was left standing on a sun-baked airfield with a duffle bag over one shoulder and a single box of possessions. She had always travelled light, a life time spent in the foster system taught you that lesson early and hard, and that had only been re-enforced when she hooked up with Violet and James. In the five years she had been working with them she had been to more countries than most people knew existed, and some countries that _no one_ knew existed, and never owned more than she could carry or was happy to abandon. She could hear Simmons and Fitz in the back of the loading bay arguing about... Something to do with 24 chromosomal pairs. She was too far away and didn't care enough to figure it out. A third low voice broke into their chatter and then disappeared, breaking the two scientists out of their chatter.

Skye turned and stepped up onto the ramp to see them shoulder to shoulder in the lab doorway.

"Oh, Agent Coulson told us the news. What a wonderful surprise. Isn't it Fitz?" Jemma's bright voice filled the space with her enthusiasm, bringing a smile to Skye's face. It wasn't often that people in a new place were accepting of her presence. It was nice to be welcomed for a change.

"Yeah." In contrast Fitz's flat voice told a three-act play's worth of subtext about his annoyance with her joining their rag-tag team.

Fitz's less than enthusiastic response, dimmed Jemma's smile slightly. Valiantly she tried to change his mind. "No, it's wonderful."

"Yeah, a surprise." Fitz's sarcasm was biting.

The two women turned to full look at him. Simmons in disappointment for his sour attitude and Skye to assess how unhappy he actually was with her joining them. Simmons shrugged at him and then turned back to Skye, trying to plaster the bright smile back on her face. "You must be very excited."

"Yep, first day of school." Skye replied. She figured that Fitz was more put out that Simmons attention wasn't on him and it wasn't the hacker herself that he objected too.

Jemma nudged Fitz and nodded at the box Skye was carrying. With an almost silent sight he pasted a smile on to his face and took the box from her. Jemma slipped a hand through an elbow of each of them and almost dragged them towards the spiral staircase that will take them into the living areas.

"Okay, so..." Jemma starts and then stutters to a stop. She smiles at Skye.

In silence the three of them climb up the stairs and then awkwardly make their way through the narrow corridor into the lounge. Jemma still looped through Fitz and Skye.

Fitz, obviously in an attempt to appease Jemma, restarts the conversation. "Officially it's an airborne mobile command station. But we call it the Bus." A grin finally overtakes the engineer's face, finding joy in imparting knowledge. "We find it best to use shorthand when in the field." The grin was turning slightly smug, his tone taking on the slightest hint of condescension, which Skye thought was probably a natural state for him. She knew it was hard for people with extremely high IQs who had spent their whole lives in sheltered, academic environments, to relate to normal people.

"But everything has to be just so, you know? Because of the danger." Fitz finished.

"Yeah I've been up here before." Skye deadpanned. "Yesterday?" Looking straight at Fitz she waved a hand at the purple bruise along her cheek.

Behind her Jemma stifled a giggle. A bottle of water appeared over Skye's shoulder.

"Water?" Jemma offered just as the plane's PA clicked on.

"Wheels up in two. Lock it or lose it." Even over the slight crackle of the electronic systems, May's voice was emotionless.

"What does that mean?" Skye asked, playing dumb to the intricacies of intercontinental mission flights.

"No backing out now. Let's find you a bunk." Jemma once again threaded an arm through one of Skye's and tugged her towards to the other side of the plane.

Fitz lagged behind them, "There's only one bunk left and its right next to mine." As they approached the small sleeping pods, Fitz brushed past them and stepped into the tiny space that would be Skye's from now on. He placed the box he had been carrying onto the made bed and moved back out into the corridor to allow Skye into her space.

After he had left, Skye dumped her duffle bag on the floor and flopped on the bed. Once horizontal she dug her phone out of her pocket and fired up the encrypted messaging program she had developed for Violet, James, and herself to use when they were apart.

SB >> _Did you get out OK_

She sent a quick message to James, she knew that even if he had gotten out of the city as planned, they were probably stowed away on a cargo plane, or a container ship or something and wouldn't be able to reply. Even so she had to try, already not knowing where Violet was, was bad enough but know wondering about James also was just too much.

A knock at her door had her stuffing the phone back into a pocket and sitting up, calling for whoever it was to come in.

Agent Grant Ward stuck his head into the room and handed her a laminated pamphlet, "You might want to read that. This isn't like other planes." Without waiting for her to respond, he ducked back out and had disappeared by the time Skye made it to the door.


	2. Chapter 2

After pushing her box under the bed, Skye made her way into the lounge and flopped onto the white leather furniture. She flipped open the pamphlet and looked over the cartoonish informatics. The number of arrows pointing to various exits points was ridiculous and unlike a normal safety pamphlet, the location of safety equipment wasn’t the only thing marked, weapon caches were also circled in a bright red. Remembering Ward's parting words, she mumbled at the absent agent, "You can say that again."

The quiet words caught Coulson's attention. He had just stepped out of the command centre and looked up at the sound. He joined the hacker on the sofa, wanting to get to know her better.

"Say what again?" He asked.

Skye smiled brightly at him, flashing the safety information at him. "Sweet ride." She deflected.

Coulson chuckled, the tips of his ears pinking slightly in embarrassment. "I earned a little good will from Director Fury when I got hit right before the Battle of New York."

The fact that a senior agent could blush was adorable, his quiet pride at the plane was adorably nerdy. Skye found it endearing in a way she hadn’t expected. She straightened from her slouched seat in interest. "You took a bullet?" Her eyes cast across the suited agent's body, as if looking for an injury that would be long since healed.

"Ish." Coulson answered. "An Asgardian stabbed me through the heart with a chitauri sceptre. The effect was similar." He gestured at his chest as he spoke, illustrating the location of the wound.

Skye's mouth dropped in shock. How he could think that _the effect was similar_ was insane. The non-terrestrial metal of the chitauri tech alone could cause all sorts of side effects. Jess had been able to squirrel a couple of pieces away before SHIELD had swooped in for clean up. For the last six months Betty and Elliot Rudolph - a Professor of Literature, who in another life had been a material scientist, that Bucky and Violet knew in Seville- had been analysing the compounds in the tech and they still didn't understand 83% of what they were looking at.

"The chitauri tech is fucked up! How are you still alive?" Skye couldn't help herself. The shock shook free a few things that it really shouldn't have.

Coulson seemed to STOP for a second. His eyes trained on her, unblinking. Skye didn't even think he was breathing. After a long uncomfortable moment his eyes narrowed, his suspicion obvious.

"And what exactly do you know about it?" His voice was dangerously even.

"Well, its um, its alien. Right?" Skye backpaddled, fast. Words tripping over themselves. "And... And I've seen the videos. There is nothing on earth that could do what those laser gun things do. Well, maybe in Tony Stark's wet dreams..." She trailed off.

Coulson winced at the mention of the slightly unhinged, but well meaning, engineer.

They eyed each other uncomfortably, both wanting to change the subject but unable to without showing their hand.

Coulson broke the stalemate with a sigh. "It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Got a few weeks of R and R, and this plane. Had it completely refurbished, studs up, spared no expense." He was grinning by the end, his inner nerd shining through.

Skye gratefully accepted the shift in conversation. "Yeah, agent Ward told me they sent you to Tahiti. Its a great country."

"It's a magical place. Have you been?"

The first part of the answer sounded rehearsed to Skye, _probably a SHIELD cover story_ , she thought, although she would have expected him to be better at selling it. "Yeah, you mentioned that. I was there a few years ago with friends. The water is insane right?"

Coulson froze again. This time Skye couldn't read the expression on his face, it was as if a switch had been flicked and the normally confident, kind agent had disappeared and a robot whose programming had caught in logic loop had replaced him.

As the minutes dragged by, with dawning horror Skye realised that she _did_ recognise the expression. It strongly reminded her of James' Hydra flashbacks. Vi had told her they had once happened all the time, luckily for James they were few and far between now days, having lessened as the programming broke down and time had healed the breaks in his psyche.

"Coulson?" She asked softly, trying to bring him back to reality without startling him into a fight response.

It worked, snapping him out of the blankness. But it was as if the last few minutes had never happened. Coulson smiling at her benignly. "Buckle up." He instructed, pulling a hidden plane seatbelt from between the seat and backrest of the sofa.

"I don't even know where we're going." Skye grumbled to herself. She hated not knowing every little detail about what was going on. Data gathering had been her main job for years and being back to the beginning with a new team made her realise how far she had come. Made her appreciate and miss the easy comradery she, Violet, and James had built.

"Peru." Coulson broke into her thoughts this time. Dragging her mind away from her worries. "That's where the 084 was reported." He flipped open a small tablet on his lap as the plane jolted into movement. A document with images and large sections of blocky redacted text lit up the screen.

"And that is...?" She extended the last word in enquiry. Her words almost lost in the thunder of the plane as it picked up speed. Racing towards the end of the run-way. Skye gripped the edge of her seat, she was fine with flying but take off sucked.

"An object of unknown origin." Coulson explained without looking up. "Kind of like you." This time he did look up and shot her a quick smile. "Team goes in, determines if its useful or if it poses a threat. Last one I worked, turned out to be pretty interesting." He elaborated.

"And what was the last one?" She asked, interested despite herself.

"A hammer." He smirked.

"A Hammer?!" Skye almost squeaked. "Like Thor's hammer? Holy shit." Without the seatbelt she would probably have vibrated off her cushion in surprise.

Coulson spent a long minute enjoying the young woman's shock. It wasn't often that he could talk about the more exciting things he had seen on the job, to have possibly found someone who got as excited as his inner child was an even better find than a ' _doesn't even see the box to work outside of_ ' hacker. With each second that passed, his smile widened and her excitement grew.

"Just like." He finally confirmed.

"Holy shit." Skye breathed. Her next words were louder. "Just. Holy shit. What was that like? Was it full first contact scenario or just the hammer?"

"It was first contact. Hamlet meets Starman."

Skye didn't even try to contain her snort of amusement. From the stories Violet told of the rivalry between Thor and Loki, Skye could absolutely believe the Hamlet part. Though the Starman angle was unexpected.

As they talked the plane levelled out and May clicked the PA on again. "You are free to move around. We will arrive in Peru at 0900 local time. "

The tablet Coulson had been casually perusing as they talked chimed with a new message alert at the same time the seatbelt light pinged off.

Coulson frowned at the message. "Excuse me,” he unclicked his seatbelt. “I have to deal with this." He stood and was half way up the stairs to his office before Skye had even unbuckled.

"Um, yeah no problem." She spoke to the empty room. A surreptitious moment of sticking her nose into all of the open rooms on that level, showed that she was alone. Quietly she slipped back into her newly acquired sleeping area.

Closing the door behind herself, she stopped and actually _looked_ at the small space. Taking in the details, something she hadn’t done when Fitz and Simmons had dropped her off.

The cream moulded plastic walls were stereotypical institutional bland, the single bed was fitted against the planes curved outside wall covered in more institutional cream that would have to go the second she could get something better, with a window that was slightly larger than those found on commercial planes. Overall, it was small and boring, but clean. And much better living quarters than some of the places Skye had lived.

The rasp of her bag's zip was loud in the small space, causing her to feel an odd sort of guilt for disturbing the quiet. _Like coughing in church,_ she thought with a small smile. It was short work to unpack the single bag and box of possessions she had brought with her. No photos of the people or places she cared about, and only a single dancing hula girl to act as a tangible reminder of the last few years.

Doing this on her own was going to be hard.

"Freya." She spoke to get the AI's active attention. "Any word from James?"

"Not yet." Freya responded instantly.

Skye sucked in a disappointed breath. "Ok. How are you going with getting past the plane's firewalls?"

"I was able to gain access to the plane systems 2.1582 seconds ago. I am still working on the encryption on the files. It would go faster with assistance. They do not have an active link into the SHIELD mainframe."

"I can't right now. Just keep working on it. Let me know if they open a link." She checked her phone to see if James had responded to her earlier message, even though she would have felt the small device vibrate if he had.

The screen was decidedly blank.

Frowning at it for a second, she stuffed it into the back pocket of her jeans. Maybe she would see what the wonder twins were up to, try and foster some good will.

= + =

Having unpacked, Skye skipped down the stairs, or as close to skipping as once could get without sending themselves hurtling down the steps face first, into the cargo area. In the open space between the vehicles and the lab doors Ward had set up a training area with mats and a punching bag. He ignored her presence, so she returned the favour. It would probably be a good idea to try and make friends with him. Getting an in with a Hydra agent might help in their search for Violet, but with his dislike of her she could easily flag her unusual interest too soon.

The sound of high-speed, technical heavy chatter floated through the open glass doors of the small lab. Two voices overlapping with each other, to most it would seem impossible that they were hearing what the other was saying, but they were hearing each other and carrying two different conversations on at the same time. Skye hesitated in the door way. The two scientists moved around their space in an immaculately choreographed dance that they had obviously been practicing for years. Was it her place to interrupt that flow?

 Jemma caught sight of Skye lurking in the doorway and waved her in with a smile. So far Coulson and Jemma were tying for most welcoming.

“Peru has over 200 species venomous snakes and … poisonous spiders.” Jemma was saying as Skye stepped inside.

“And monkeys.” Fitz added seamlessly.

“It’s fascinating.” Jemma continued as if Fitz’s words had been her own. “The shushupe has a fascinating venom. It’s neurotoxic, proteolytic, and hemolytic.” She was _way_ too excited about that for Skye’s comfort.

Skye lent against one of the tables, out of the way, of the young agents who were still bustling around the room. Fitz was sorting equipment between benches, cupboards, and two cushioned hard cases. Meanwhile Jemma was examining a monitor that was showing an orange sample of something that at a high magnification. The crystalline structure was quite beautiful.

“Have you been out of the country before?” Fitz asked out of the blue. Speaking over Jemma’s continued, expansive description of the scientific curiosities that had been coming out of South America in the last decade.

“Me?” Skye pointed a finger at herself, slightly stunned that he was addressing her.

At his nod she answered. “Yeah once or twice.” Not completely truthfully, it had been a lot more than that.

“Where have you been?” Jemma asked at the same time as Fitz’s “Where?” burst from his mouth.

“Ah, Tahiti and Mexico.” Skye told some of the truth, she had already told Coulson she had been to the small island nation and the connection to his recent recuperation was too stark to leave on its own.

No sooner had she thought it than Jemma jumped in with, “Agent Coulson has been to Tahiti. He said it was lovely.”

“He um, mentioned that.” Skye shifted. She wasn’t convinced that the Senior Agent had ever actually been, but if that was the cover story he was selling, and they were buying it wasn’t her place to say anything. At least not while she was trying to ingratiate herself with the team.

“I’ve only been to Europe and the US. I image the tropics are beautiful.” Jemma sighed.

“Have you travelled much Fitz?” Skye turned to the young man, trying to continue the good will from him having initiated the conversation with her.

“Oh, um. Same as Simmons.” The engineer fiddled with a tiny phillip head screwdriver. His hands never seemed to still.

“What about you Ward? Travel much?” Skye called to the other man who was wailing on a punching bag.

A grunted _classified_ was the only answer she got. The three of them grinned at each other in a nerd’s shared exasperation for the _jock_ stereotype that Grant Ward epitomised.


	3. Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be doing weekly updates on Fridays from now on.

Mid-morning sun combined with the jungle humidity to stick the light cotton of Skye's shirt to her back in a very uncomfortable manner. They had only been on the ground in Peru for long enough to lower the ramp and back the team's SUV off the plane, before their in-country counter parts turned up in a similar, white vehicle. The foliage around the dusty land strip that had set down on was thick, and a green so vivid it was hard to accept as real.

Coulson and Ward were off to one side chatting in fast Spanish to the locals, FitzSimmons were securing the last of their equipment in their vehicle and chattering at each other the whole time, and May was still somewhere on board. Skye found the noise of people moving and talking relaxing background sound to work to. Settled on the lip of the ramp she pulled up the local social media, seeing if there was anything interesting happening in either the easily accessible public channels, or the darker, more shadowed corners of the internet where she spent most of her time.

Most of the chatter was from native land holders talking about ongoing problems with the Multinational mining companies that were trying to ‘buy’ their land, and water management. The shadows were more interesting. Whispers of strange lights at night, something interfering with radio transmissions, and energy readings they didn't recognise. It was enough that the dark web was sending out quiet stay away message to those virtual inhabitants that had reason to fear the shadier government agencies, such as SHIELD. Skye sent out her own keep away just as May emerged from the shadowed interior behind her. Skye snorted at the timing.

May raised a single eyebrow at the sound. Skye raised both of hers back.

Before the older agent could verbally ask a question, Coulson called the whole team over to the cars.

“May, Ward, Fitz and Simmons you will take our car. Follow Skye and I with the locals.” Coulson said and within seconds everyone was scrambling into vehicles and the click of seatbelts and low roar of two high powered engines turning over drowned out the calls and songs of the local wildlife.

The road to the Incan Temple where the 084 had been found was little more than a dirt track slashed haphazardly through the thick vegetation.  Large plumes of reddish-brown dust billowed into the air behind the speeding cars. A perfect location marker for anyone who wished them ill. After a bone jarring twenty minutes the forest opened up into a packed earth base camp. Wooden structures randomly strewn around the edges of the artificial clearing, leaving the middle free for people to work during the day and socialise at night. The cars slowed to a crawl before pulling in beside the biggest of the temporary structures.

Coulson exited his side of the car gracefully, not a hair out of place even after the manic car ride. Skye half tumbled out of her's in an effort to get away from the driver and the possibility of being in the same car as him again.

"Welcome to Llactapata." The driver said before disappearing into the ants nest of an archaeological site.

Behind them, May had pulled the SHIELD SUV into a much more controlled stop and slid from behind the wheel. Ward circled the car to join her in staring distrustfully at the people around them. Fitz and Simmons' exits were even more uncontrolled then Skye's and their lilting British accents carried over the noise even before their doors opened, continuing whatever conversation they had been having on the drive.

Fitz and Simmons began off-loaded the cases and backpacks of equipment from the van. Creating a pile of unrelenting black that was almost a temple to science, to combat the weirdness they were here to investigate.

Coulson, with Skye trailing him, joined May and Ward.

"Tire tracks, 40 meters back. I'll check them against the site's trucks, make sure we're alone." Ward spoke and then disappeared before anyone else could talk.

_Ok then..._ Skye thought, _just as grumpy in the field as he is 'at home'._

Coulson looked at May for her initial assessment.

"Too much exposure here, I'm going to find a place to park." She replied.

At Coulson's nod, May silently slid back into the car and not so silently pulled the ridiculous black SUV away from the rest of the team. Skye had always wondered which government drone was responsible for _branding_ the cars and clothing of a supposedly covert agency. Maybe she would finally have a chance to find out. After May had left Coulson walked off with a determined stride, probably to find the dig director.

Skye wandered over to join the two younger team members. Walking to the middle of their conversation.

"...I would love to see a capuchin in the wild." Fitz was saying to a benignly smiling Jemma. "Maybe even a yellow-tailed woolly monkey. You know, Peru has 32 different species of monkeys." His voice rising at the end in excitement.

"They are fascinating creatures.” Jemma agreed kindly, she didn’t share his enthusiasm for monkeys. But took pleasure in his enjoyment of them. “Almost nothing is known about the Peruvian Night Monkeys, they are the least studied of all the primates." Jemma took up the conversational strain.

"That's cool." Skye inserted when Jemma stopped to breath. "I'm more interested in all those things that could poison me though." Skye shot a joking glare at the biomedical scientist. Poisonous creepy crawlies hadn’t been on her ‘shit to worry about’ list until today.

"Oh. No." Jemma missed the 'joking' part of the glare and worriedly hurried to reassure Skye. "I'd be much more concerned with earthquakes, malaria. There's no vaccine for Dengue Fever you know." As she talked Simmons absently slaps a flying insect of the back of Fitz's neck.

Fitz in turn tried to duck away from the swipe. Glaring at his best friend’s back in retaliation, not that it did any good, Jemma just ignored it and continued on her way.

"Ah, thanks. That's not really helpful." Skye deadpanned. At least she never had to worry about earthquakes.

Jemma blushed, embarrassed that her enthusiasm had only made Skye's perceived distress worse, still missing that Skye was mostly joking. The three of them stopped in awe. The Temple they had come to investigate suddenly loomed out of the trees. A giant rough-hewn granite structure, it had a wide staircase cut into the face they were looking at. The stones around the stairs were more finely smoothed with detailed images carved into their surfaces, traces of paint clinging desperately to the stone.

With the building in front of them, Fitz and Simmons were off. Trading factoids and theories about its history and possible methods of construction. Leaving them to their excited babble, Skye wandered over to where Coulson had just emerged from a different patch of trees.

"We should warn the people who live around here if the 084 is dangerous. They're already dealing with anti-mining rebels and Shining Path Guerillas. I could post something." Skye said in lieu of hello. Completely ignoring that she had already sort of done that, at least to the shadowed people in the area. Over the last few years, Skye had built up a reputation for knowing when the locals should clear out, and her word was trusted. Because of this the left-leaning of the dark-netizens would pass on the message and all without breaking her cover. What Coulson didn't know should hopefully not hurt him.

"Remember the panic when that anti-matter meteor splashed down of the coast of Miami, nearly devouring the City?" He asked in return without looking away from the Temple.

"No."

"Precisely." He finally looked at her, trying to impress how important what he was saying was. "Because we kept it quiet and contained."

"So what am I doing here?" Skye half accused.

"Well, if it gets out, I might need you to create some kind of diversion, put the public on the wrong scent." His steady eyes tracked every flicker of emotion across her face. Fully expecting her to rebel against the idea.

Although in the last few years she had come to understand the need for discretion and that there were things the world’s general population didn't need to know about. The her of 5 years ago, before James and Violet had come into her life, would have fought him on the very idea of keeping information like this secret. "So, everything that I'm against." She flat out accused him this time, her arms crossed defensively across her chest.

"Yep." Coulson responded happily. The traces of a smile hiding at the corners of his mouth and in the extra twinkle in his eye. He stepped away as an older gentleman exited the modern doorway that had been hacked into the side of the temple. "Good morning Professor. I'm Agent Coulson with SHIELD." He flipped open the leather wallet that held his credentials. "I understand you have made an interesting discovery."

The Professor stuttered to a stop, not having expected a secret agent to appear in his path. "I - I'm not sure how to explain it... This temple, it is 500 years old at least. It's filled with pre-Incan artifacts. Once of them is impossible and looks like it might be dangerous." The man was spurred into a timely answer by Coulson's unassuming but slightly threatening stance.

"Well, that's why we're here." He set his face in _'reassuring government stooge'._

The as yet unnamed professor stepped out of Coulson's way, turned back the way he had come and lead Coulson and Skye through the hole he had just appeared through. Stepping into the gloom of the tunnel, Skye paused to let her eyes adjust and then hurried to catch up. As the three of them made their way down a short corridor the man started talking again.

"Mr. Lloyd, one of the Masters students, found the object a few days ago in the anti-chamber of the interior ritual room. None of us have ever seen anything like it." His nerves caused him to babble. Even in his distracted state, he easily stepped around the rubble littering the floor, showing a long familiarity with his surroundings. "Watch out." He absently pointed out a step down into the room they had been looking for.

As the three of them stepped into the dim room Fitz and Simmons caught up to them, still talking a mile a minute at each other, loaded down with their equipment cases and bags. Though they had moved on from local wildlife and construction techniques to the energy readings they were getting off the small device Fitz was fiddling with. The only light sources were the white sunshine coming in behind the group and eerie blue glow from a silvery box imbedded at hip height in the back wall.

The blue glow was steady.

Unwavering.

_Otherworldly._ Skye thought to herself. She reached out with her powers, trying to sense its vibrational frequency. It was like a black hole of _nothing._ Concentrating on it made her queasy. Everything she had come into contact with since she got her powers gave off some sort of vibration. This was absolutely still. It was as if suddenly she couldn't hear the wind in the trees, she could see the branches moving and hear everything else, but the wind was just _gone_. It wasn't until confronted with the 084 that Skye realised how much she had come to rely on the sensory input from her powers.

There were several wires dangling from various points on the device, seemingly unrelated to any of the other markings on it. At some point in the object’s history, it had been damaged.

The group stared for long moments before the Professor broke the silence.

"Exactly as we found it." He kept to the edges of the room, keeping as much space between himself and the 084.

"Who else knows about this?" Coulson dragged his eyes away from the steady light with difficulty to address the academic.

"Just the ministry. I believe they are the ones who contacted you." He answered.

Fitz and Simmons pushed past the two older men and Skye, murmuring quiet apologies. Setting their equipment holders down beside the object and started pulling devices out. Skye stayed slightly behind Coulson and took a quick photo of the object from beside her hip. With a flick of her finger she had sent the photo off to James and Rudolph. She hadn't come across anything similar, either during her time with James and Violet, nor in the years before with the Rising Tide. Maybe one of them had seen something like it before.

Coulson began herding the academic out of the room. "Sir, I need you and your team to evacuate the site until we determine the risk associated with the object."

The professor had started sputtering about research deadlines and excavation permits halfway through Coulson's speech, but allowed himself to be herded. From what he had heard, SHIELD was generally pretty good about compensating researchers for interruptions to, and confiscations of, their research. It was a good way of buying their silence without outright bribing them.

Fitz knelt on the hard-stone floor and flipped open the largest of the cases he had been carrying. From her spot leaning against one of the walls, appearing to play with her phone, Skye could see seven small mechanical spiders. With a soft whirr all seven spiders rose in to the air. Once airborne Skye could see they were actually drones no larger than her hand. She watched fascinated as they broke the room into a grid and green lights started issuing from their bodies, scanning the room. The one closest to the door took an interest in the archaeology doctorate that Coulson just about had out the door, narrowing its scans to him.

"Leave the man alone." Jemma shooed it along with a smile and hand motion.

"Now. For your own safety." Coulson regained the man's attention from the machine that had been attempting to scan him. An arm held just off the man's shoulders successfully got him out the door.

The drones' grid search was tightening in on the 084. One already beginning to scan it, prompting Simmons to hurry over to Fitz to read the results over his shoulder.

"There's nothing about this anywhere." Skye said, not looking up from her phone. _Lies. Well, there were not mentions on the readily accessible sources._ She justified to herself. Her idle typing got her access to Fitz’s tablet and forwarded the data to Frey and Rudolph, maybe they would have some insight.

"It's amazing. I’ve searched every data stream. What do we got there guys?" She pushed away from the wall and picker her way towards the imbedded hunk of metal. She reaches for it, wondering if she would be able to tell anything about it's vibrations if she made physical contact. Before she could, a hand slapped her's away with a sharp crack that spilt the quiet of the temple.

"Whoa. Care.. Uh... Careful. I... No I wouldn't do that." Fitz glowered at her over the top of his tablet.

"The object's placement in a fossiliferous rock formation suggests it's been here for at least 1,500 years. That pre-dates this temple by a millenium." Simmons explained Fitz's extreme reaction. "Oh! Maybe it's alien?" She looks at her co-conspirator, the possibility of discovery brightening her face.

They both huddle back over the tablet. Pointing things of interest out to each other on the screen. While they were distracted Skye leant closer to the object. On closer inspection the technology looked mid-20th century. A single fingertip against the metal slightly opened her vibrations back up to her, the metal was a low-quality steel with a high iron content. She moved her finger to the blue crystals that were giving off the light.

The moment she made contact her mind was pulled out of her body and hurled into a maelstrom of light and sound. The force twisted her mind, pulling it fifty different ways across a galaxy of space. Then in the next second pushing it into a pinhead. Glimpses of the past, the present, the future, and other earths flashed in and out of existence around her. In one she saw a tall blonde man decked out in red, white and blue standing alone in a snow-covered forest. The next second a golden city fell to fire. Within the fire she saw herself crying in the pilot’s seat of a quinjet. One of her tears fell into an ocean teaming with prehistoric life. The images came and went and swirled into each other, she was lost. In the chaos there were voices.

A deep baritone was asking about a nebula.

The other voice was higher, softer, kinder. It was talking about a library.

The last wasn’t speaking, whoever it was, was struggling to catch their breaths around the heartbreaking sobs that were distorted by the chaos that wrapped its fingers around her mind. Sometimes they were crystal clear as if the person was right next to her, then they would be leagues away. One sob would stretch over heartbeats while the next would be pressed into a blink.

Further off a woman was screaming. An endless, spine tingling sound.

Before she could hear anything more her mind was catapulted back into her body when her physical form painfully collided with an unforgiving stone wall.

Skye blinked her eyes open to find she was crumpled on the ground and Simmons was leaning over her. She gingerly turned her head, trying to figure out why she was on the floor. Fitz came barrelling back into the room, Coulson hot on his heels. She didn't know when he had left. She opened her mouth to asked what had happened, but a croak was the only thing to emerge.

"What happened?" Coulson asked for her. _How nice of him,_ she thought, more than a little loopy.

Fitz and Simmons started talking at once.

"I think she touched it!" Fitz said angrily. Arms waving at her and the 084 both.

"She started screaming and then was on the other side of the room." Simmons sounded close to tears.

_Oh, that screaming woman was me._ Skye thought, giggling.

The other three stopped talking to look at her.

"Is she ok?" Coulson asked Simmons.

"I don't know. We don't know what that thing is. And she's probably a little shook up from being thrown across a room." Jemma was growling by the end of her sentence. Although her hands were gentle where they felt across Skye's skull and limbs for damage.

Skye cleared her throat and tried to speak again, with more success this time. "I don't know what happened.” She croaked. “I accidently touched it and then I was on the floor." She lied through her teeth. There was no _accidently_ about it and she remembered every agonising second of the experience.

"Agent Simmons, check her out and then get her back to the bus. Agent Fitz continue your assessment." Coulson didn't even try to talk to Skye. His displeasure at the situation coming off him in waves. There was going to be hell to pay later.

Simmons took another couple of minutes to check her over. "Nothing broken, but you probably gave yourself a concussion. I will be able to check you out better at the Bus. Up you get." She threaded an arm underneath Skye's and together they levered her off the ground. Simmons kept her arm there while they picked their way through the rubble in the corridor.

They emerged into the blinding sunlight. Both women blinking rapidly trying to clear their eyesight, Skye groaning at how the light seemed to shove a needle point dagger into her brain by way of her eyes. Away from the 084, the vibrations of the area had completely changed from when they had arrived. The birds and small wildlife that had lit up her senses before were gone now, the only things putting off any frequencies were larger and trying to stay hidden a few meters into the tree line.

"Simmons stop." Skye ground to a halt.

Jemma didn't.

"Jemma!" Skye demanded the scientist's attention. The other woman turned to look at her. "There's something wrong."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi a my [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/quartzcelticas).


	4. Part 4

Melinda was not happy to be in the tropics. It was humid, the sun was too bright, the insects were prone to swarming, and she had spent a 20-minute car ride listening to two kids catalogue every animal within a hundred-mile radius that could kill you. She missed her dark little cubicle in admin where she couldn't put anyone else in danger. She moved closer to the temple wall, trying to find some shade. _I'm getting soft._ She thought. Ten years ago, these conditions wouldn't have even registered to be considered uncomfortable. _That was before..._ She frowned at her own thoughts. There was no good on dwelling. It had happened, now she had to live with it.

Out of the corner of her eye Coulson was ushering the dig director out of the temple. The two men standing in the sun and continuing their conversation.

"Tires match the Prof's truck." Ward tried to sneak up behind her.

 _He probably thought he was being silent._ May gave a purely mental snort. She maybe out of practice but that didn't mean some rookie robot was ever going to be able to sneak up on her.

"Where's your sidearm?" Ward unsubtly ran his eyes appreciatively along her body. Before turning to look out at the never-ending green.

As they talked, Fitz appeared and dragged Coulson back inside. She absently catalogued the movement.

"If I need a gun, I'll take one." May said.

"Right. Forgot I was working with 'The Cavalry'." He joked.

Her eyes narrowed in warning. "Don't ever call me that." They slowly circled the edge of the clearing, staying out of the way of the researchers that were scurrying around the site.

As they were talking the Simmons and Skye half stumbled out of the temple. The hacker pulled the other woman to a stop, saying something low and urgent to the scientist. Something clenched low in Melinda's stomach in response.

"Look Out!" Skye's shouted warning broke the uneasy quiet.

A swarm of men burst from the tree line. Automatic weapons already aimed at the three SHIELD agents and their tag-along. The man closest to May had to readjust slightly, it was all the opening she needed. In a few short seconds and a flurry of movement. There was one less camo clad, gun toting thug to contend with. She uses the butt of the rifle she had appropriated from the first man to cold clock the next. He crumpled to the ground next to his comrade.

Ward was too close to the trees, and the man that stepped out of them, for any shots to be fired in his direction without possibly hitting their own people. Ward grabbed the barrel of the rifle that was pointed at him, jerking it roughly forward and shoulder check his opponent.

Skye shoved Jemma to the ground just as the sharp retort of automatic fire echoes through the clearing. She pushed the other woman into the corner where the temple wall met the packed earth, crouching in front of her. A little concentration saw the bullets heading in their direction divert around a small shield of vibrations, hitting the temple wall. Chips of stone sliced into bare skin.

Three aimed shots, from the rifle May had taken, dropped the gunmen targeting the two women. Silence reasserted itself. Ward and May pulled in deep breaths and surveyed the scene. The floor was littered with six men in worn camouflage gear, the Temple had gained a few new holes, and the Skye was helping Jemma to her feet next to the doorway they had come out of.

May's breathing returned to normal just as two dust covered SUVs roared into the clearing. The cars disgorged a new team of thugs. The new comers were also decked out in camo, but it was in better condition and had the accompanying nametags and patches that suggested they were a legitimate force.

"Should have taken more guns." Ward quipped at May.

May ignored her team mate and levelled her rifle at the lead man and the pistol she had taken from her second victim at another of the new trouble makers.

Ward thumbs his comm unit on. "Sir?"

Coulson's voice crackled back down the line, "Go."

"We have a situation." Ward shifted slightly when one of the men started reaching for the pistol at his hip. The move squared up Ward's own weapon with the man's centre mass.

"On my way."

It was a tense 30 seconds before Coulson strode into the clearing. "Buenos Dias. Soy Agent Coulson. Estamos aqui por un asunto de la seguridad internacional." He introduced himself in flawless, lightly accented Spanish.

"Phillip?" A woman towards the back of the group of new arrivals pushed her way to the front.

Coulson took a step back in shock. "Camilla?" He blinked at his old friend, then looked at all of the drawn guns. "Do you mind?" He waved an arm at her men.

"After you." Camilla replied, nodding at Ward and May in an obvious request that they go first.

Coulson catches Ward's eye and silently indicated that he should lower his gun. The younger man glowers at the man he has his gun pointed at for several second before following the order. Pulling himself to his full height in warning.

May follows the direction Coulson had given Ward without being prompted. She remembered Phil's stories of his time in South America as part of a joint task force with the Policia Militar Del Peru. And Camilla Reyes, a bright eyes young officer attached to it.

The tension began to dissipate. Shoulders relaxing, the military men closed the doors of their vehicles and stepped further into the clearing and out of their defensive formations. The click of safeties being re-engaged were a counter point to the Leaders of the two teams continued conversation.

"And now a proper hello." Camilla's smile was wide. _And just slightly wrong_ May thought.

Coulson and Reyes covered the distance between them in a few steps. The Peruvian pressing a light kiss to each of Coulson's cheeks.

"Comandante, a promotion." Coulson said. "Congratulations."

Reyes' smile became more genuine. "Three years ago, but thank you." She lightly chided Coulson for his lack of communication.

Keeping his eyes on his old friend, he pointed out his team member. "Agents Melinda May and Grant Ward. Doctor Simmons, and Skye. This is Comandante Camilla Reyes. She's with the Policia Militar Del Peru. We used to work together back in the day."

May doesn't need the introduction or the reminder of Coulson's past connection to this woman. She exchanges a quick look with Ward. Neither of them trusted this fortuitous meeting of old friends. Skye and Simmons greeted Reyes a soft _Hi_ and _Hello._

"Let Fitz know everything's ok." Coulson directed Ward, who promptly stalked into the Temple's dark interior.

= + =

Fitz jumped in surprise at Ward's entry. Causing the older Agent to scowl at him. They were in the field and everyone should be on their guard.

"We've got company. National police." Ward explained.

"Why are they here?" Fitz turned his attention back to the tablet he was working on.

"They heard about this object," Ward crossed the room to get a better look at the item everyone was so concerned about. Leaning down to get a better look. "They're probably here to protect it." Almost without his permission Ward's hand began to rise, drawn to the blue glow.

"Don't touch that." Fitz's voice cracked harshly through the room. Echoes bouncing through the room. "It won't end well for you."

Ward scowled at the reprimand from a baby agent. "This area has a lot of rebels." Ward turned his attention away from the alluring light, crossing his arms as if he had never had any intention of touching the 084. Taking an extra step away. "How much longer?"

"Are we in danger?" Fitz answers the question with a question. Not actually providing the information Ward needs to assess the situation.

"Not if everyone does their job." Ward growls before stalking a circuit around the room.

Ward stumbles half a step as a large explosion outside rocks the foundation of the building.

"Sounds like they're engaging with rebels. Let's go."

Fitz made no move to pack up, absorbed in the readings on his tablet.

"Rebels, they're coming for it!" He gestures at the 084. "Let's move!"

Ward's shout spurs Fitz into movement. A press of his finger has the drones flying across to room to land on their case, Fitz scrambling to put them back in their slots. "No, no, no." He chants under his breath.

As he slots the last one away, he turns to Ward. "We need a containment case for the 084."

"There's no time." He response.

"But it has a fluctuating power core. Frequencies way above 10 exahertz."

Ward looks at him blankly, not understanding the words coming out of the engineer's mouth.

The two men stare at each other, more than just the space of the room separating them.

Finally, Ward takes the two steps across the room and starts to try and yank the device out of the wall. "Sorry, science class is over."

"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait." Fitz freaks.

With a crunch, Ward frees it from the wall. He starts shoving it into a free bag.

"You didn't just pull that out of the wall! What is the matter with you?!?!" Fitz shouts.

Ward ignores him and tries to shove the bag into Fitz's flailing hands.

"That thing threw Skye across the room. Do you realise the amount of photon emissions it’s putting out?" Fitz continued. Refusing the take the bag. He steps back and starts grabbing the rest of the equipment bags. Once his hands are full. Ward shoves him towards the doorway, keeping hold of the bag with the 084 himself.

"Okay. We don't know what will happen if it gets excited." Fitz warns, following the older agent out of the temple.


	5. Part 5

"Simmons get Skye into the SUV and head back to base. She still needs to be checked out." Coulson continued.

Camilla shot a curious look at Skye, obviously wondering what had happened to the young woman to have Coulson fussing while also annoyed. She watched Simmons lead Skye out of the clearing and then turned back to Coulson. "I know you have found a strange object on Peruvian soil. We should have a conversation about how to proceed."

"Of course." He responded in his bland bureaucrat voice.

It was obvious to May he didn't agree that they needed to have _any_ conversation, let alone about how to proceed. This was a SHIELD matter and they would do well to stay out of it. Not that they would, May thought.

"But an 084 superseded all national claims." His voice hardened. _That_ he meant.

"You look good." Reyes changed tacks. Even after all this time she obviously remembered how immovable he could get about procedure and was looking for a way around it. The reminder of their shared history wasn’t going to do it though.

"Yeah, I work out." He joked back, seeing through the redirect.

"It shows." She flirts, trying to kick start the easy relationship they had once had.

They move around the perimeter of the clearing. As they walked, they subconsciously fell into step. It had been a long time since they had seen each other, but they were both military. They watched as Camilla's men packed their downed teammates into the back of the SUVs. Efficiently bandaging the gunshot wounds on the three men May had shot. Camilla took a half-gone bar of chocolate out of one of her many pockets. Offering a piece to Coulson.

“The cacao is from a secret valley here in Peru. Very special."

He accepted a small piece and popped it into his mouth. Savouring it for a moment.

"Best chocolate in the world." She continued.

"Could use some sugar." He said, just to wind her up. He enjoyed it, but his sweet tooth was legendary in the friendly covert community.

As expected Camilla laughed. "Americans." She said with feigned disgust.

"You know me Camilla. I'm a pretty simple guy." He smiled at her.

They stopped next to the cars Camilla and her team had arrived in.

"There was nothing simple about your last mission here."

"I had some great help." He reminded her modestly. That wasn't a mission he liked to dwell on. In truth it had gone FUBAR from word dot. It was only with some serious SHIELD backup, and an assassin, who later confessed that he would have torn the world apart if anything had happened to Coulson, that they had all gotten out alive.

Camilla sighed, turning away from him. Her eyes tracking something in the trees. Whether something that was there to see if you knew how or simply a memory of something, Coulson wasn't sure.

"There isn't any change we get to keep the device, is there?" She asked, her tone saying she already knew the answer.

"It's not mine to give." He said with only half false apology. "But I'm sure we can find some way to resolve this respectfully, in a way that gives your country..." He started. It was paramount to SHIELD to maintain any and all ties with local law enforcement as often as possible, their job was always ten times harder when they didn’t, before a large explosion rocked them all.

Immediately the small clearing echoed with gunfire. Bullets pinging towards the SHIELD agents and Peruvian military from deep within the trees. Return fire from the agents and military members spraying into the jungle. Broken branches and fragments of leaves floated to the ground, an obscene confetti that turned the previously bare earth, of an often walked on clearing, verdant.

"Rebels." Camilla needlessly shouted.

"Stay close." Coulson hustled them both into the relative cover of one of the vehicles.

The firing rate tapered off. The initial burst of activity giving way to the empty magazines and a need to reload on both sides. As the gunfire slowed men in older, worn camouflage and red bandanas began pouring out of the trees, throwing themselves into a physical fight. One of the first rebels to break the tree line, pushed away from the man he was fighting, shoved a fresh magazine into the old AK-47 he had slung over his shoulder and put a short burst into one of the trucks. A fireball was sent roaring into the sky as the fuel tank ignited. Every fight paused as the opponents flinched away from the burst of intense heat.

Coulson instinctively crouched behind the vehicle he was using for cover, pulling Camilla down with him. "Your men need to fall back now, or we'll never make the runway." There was a better than good chance the next target would be the truck they were sheltered behind and they were going to need it to get out.

Camilla nodded.

Each of them began calling orders to their people as they moved. Every time one of the military men or SHIELD agents popped out of cover to send metal downrange an enemy combatant fell. In one of the moments between rebel bursts Ward bursts from the temple, weapon drawn, and Fitz close behind him. He dropped the black bag with the 084, fired a short burst, and stepped further into the clearing, away from the temple, all in one smooth, cool movement.

"Get Back!" He shouted, pulling a silver tube from one an inside pocket of his jacket. He rolled into the middle of the clearing an, regaining his feet, crouched into a solid fighter’s stance.

"Tell your men to get down!" Coulson ordered Camilla, continuing to fire at the enemy who were attempting to flank them.

May punched one of the men she was fighting square in the face, ducked a haymaker from another which she answers with a jab to the throat. With those two down she was able to disengage from the last man actively fighting her by shooting him in the foot. Knowing what was about the happen, she flung herself into a graceful tuck and roll, coming to rest on her knees next to Fitz. A hand wrapped in the engineer’s collar brought him down to the dirt to join her.

Camilla yells at her men to drop and then Coulson and she drop back behind their car. Ward slammed the end of the silver tube into the ground. His thumb pressing an almost invisible button on the other end. A small silver cylinder shot out of the end of the tube, faster than the eye could track it came to a stop a meter into the air. It hangs motionless for long moments before a shockwave ripples through the clearing. Everyone still standing found themselves lifted off their feet and _pushed_ backwards. Heavy thumps signal the end of the skirmish.

"That won't keep them down for long." Coulson told Camilla, needing to get his own and her people moving.

Nodding in understanding Camilla threw herself into the driver’s seat of the truck they were hiding behind. Her men had left to keys in the ignition and it was an easy twist of her wrist to bring to roaring life. Coulson followed her into the passenger’s side. Across the clearing, May grabbed Fitz's arm and bodily pulled him up, dragging him towards the SUV that Camilla had control of. Ward pushed to his feet and threw away the empty tube, pulling his pistol back out in case the shockwave had missed any of the rebels, he grabbed the 084 and followed May and Fitz, covering their retreat. Together May and Ward pushed Fitz into the back of the growling SUV, equipment and all. May circled to vehicle to get in the other side, while Ward roughly shoved the 084 almost on top of the oddly silent engineer, climbed in and slammed the door closed. As the last of Camilla's men scrambled into the second truck, their's took off with spinning tyres and a plume of dust.

"Get to the airfield." Coulson ordered.

Camilla pointing the vehicle down the correct road.

"Slow down!" Fitz demands, finally righting himself and clicking a seatbelt into place. One hand wrapping tightly around the woven fabric, the other trying to hold the 084 bag steady.

Ward shot him an incredulous look.

"Listen, we have to be careful. There's a binding energy structure that could over heat." Fitz tried to explain. Looking beseechingly across at Ward, hoping he would understand.

Bullets pinged off the metal. Flecks of paint and metal dusting their path.

"Head left, the ravine empties." Ward ignored to warning.

"But Ward..." Fitz had to try again. He had to made them all understand the danger the object presented.

"Quiet!" Three voices demanded. Camilla was too concerned with keeping the vehicle on the road and moving to join in the reprimand, though the hard frown on her face spoke volumes.

The remainder of the drive was a stress filled adventure in trying to keep their seats while careening around potholes and dodging bullets. Closing in on the Bus, May thumbed her radio on.

"Simmons, we're coming in hot. Get the ramp down."

"How fast can you have wheels up?" Coulson asked, twisting in his seat to look at May.

"Fast." Was her not entirely useful answer.

A squeal of old breaks slammed the heavy vehicle to a stop at the end of the ramp and the SHIELD agents and Reyes began piling out, equipment being handed off and carted up the lowered ramp. Simmons, from her position at the control panel for the ramp, slapped her hands over her ears to protect them from the sharp sound. The second car pulled up behind the first, and Peruvian soldiers began pouring out of it and into the plane, a tidal wave of dirty, dusty, tired, blood speckled men.

May continued through the cargo area and up the stairs, heading for the cockpit at as close to a full-tilt run as it was possible to get in the cramped quarters. Ward hustled Fitz into the lab where Skye was waiting, positioned in a chair from their earlier return and ordered to not even _think_ about moving.

"Get that ramp up." Coulson ordered Simmons as the last soldier stepped aboard.

Simmons flicks a switch and the ramp slowly begins to rise, assisting the last few men down it. Half a foot off the ground, and still inching upwards, a third vehicle blows onto the airfield from the direction they had come. The sound of gunfire soaring above the twin growl of engines from the car and the plane.

Bullets ricochet off the exterior, both into the jungle outside and more dangerously into the cargo hold full of people. Coulson grabs Simmons arm and hauls her further into the plane, narrowly getting her out of the way of chips of metal sent flying by a stray shot. Gently pushing her towards the lab to get her out of the line of fire, he joined Camilla and her men returning fire. Ward takes over the pass-the-scientist and gave her a final shove into the lab. He slammed his hand on the close button once she is through the doors, drew his weapon and shot a rebel trying to climb onto the halfway up ramp.

Inside the lab Skye, Fitz, and Simmons watched the firefight.

"Got to say, I miss my van." Skye quipped as the ramp finally shut with a metallic clang. In reality she actually missed both the reassuring weight of a pistol in her hand and being able to freely defend herself with her powers. She missed the confidence Vi and James had in her ability to look after herself.

With a bump, the plane took off.

Ward opened the lab back up while Camilla checked on her people. "Now, what was the problem?" He asked Fitz.

Skye and Simmons looked between them in question, having missed Fitz's earlier argument.

Fitz looked at where the innocuous black canvas bag containing the 084 was sitting in the middle of the cargo bay and drew in a deep breath. "As I said before,” he started slowly, carefully selecting each word. “This device has a high-frequency, fluctuating, sub-material compression..." His accent grew thicker as the true implications of his own words seemed to hit him.

"Fitz!" Ward interrupted. "English."

"The 084 is fuelled by Tesseract technology. Hydra. World War II. Captain America." Fitz tried again.

Skye shrank further into her seat. Tesseract technology? This was worse then bad. This was maybe even worse than Violet going missing. The Asgardian had told Skye and James about certain universe ending technologies that were floating around the cosmos, and that was one of them. The warning hadn't truly sunk in until New York and that was not a situation that Skye wanted to repeat. _Ever._

"It's full of lethal amounts of gamma radiation." Fitz concluded.

"I touched that thing." Skye whispered, horrified. The implications of the mind warping touch taking on new, nightmare inducing, connotations.

"Gamma, you're saying its nuclear?" Ward said at the same time.

"No. He's saying it's much, much worse." Coulson clarified for everyone.

Coulson, Ward, Fitz, and Simmons all back away from the bag. The movement more reflexive than any belief that those few extra inches would save them in the case of the worst happening.


	6. Part 6

"Can we contain it?" Coulson asked the science team, breaking the uneasy silence that had settled over them, as they each contemplated the sheer stupidity of bringing a volatile nuclear device onto their plane.

They stood in a half circle around the black bag that Skye was finding more ominous with each second that passed, each of them keeping a carful distance. Simmons and Fitz exchange a series of eyebrow raises, hand gestures and head movements, having a long silent conversation in a language that no one else can understand. Finally, they come to some form of consensus and break eye contact.

"Maybe." Simmons answers for them both.

"Maybe is not good enough." Coulson glowers, no more comfortable than anyone else, even with years of experience.

"With a bit more study." Fitz starts.

"And a lot more tests." Simmons takes over seamlessly.

"We should be able to come up with something." Fitz continues. “I didn’t get much of a chance before we were interrupted.” He tried to explain, wringing his hands. He had never liked being interrupted while he was working, and the manner of interruption had been so much more violent than he was used to.

"Do what you can." Coulson tells Fitz. A gentle hand on Simmons’ elbow lead her away from the group. "How is she?" He asks Simmons, nodding at Skye.

"Her tests have come back clear so far, but I didn’t know to look for trace radiation. I’ll start that now." Simmons bit her lip, knowing that the other woman wouldn’t be happy about _more_ tests.

The twin looks of consideration from Coulson and Simmons had Skye frowning, that did not bode well for her.

He nods at Simmons and releases her to her work. Turning his attention to the Peruvians they were harbouring he made his way over. "Camilla, once I have checked in with May I’ll show you around." He leads Reyes up the spiral staircase.

Once Coulson had left, the agents scattered. Ward upstairs to do whatever it was he did once the shooting stops _, probably murder tiny kittens_ , Skye thinks her mind stuttering to a halt at the thought _. Maybe Simmons was wrong about that concussion._ Skye had undergone a battery of tests when they returned to the Bus and been cleared, but she was normally better at stomping on thoughts like that before they could even leave her subconscious. It was too much of risk that her real feelings would be obvious to the trained agents around her or they would make her angry enough for her control to slip, which at 30,000 feet wouldn’t end well for any of them.

Fitz collected a trolley from one of the storage rooms behind the lab, that Skye hadn't had time to snoop into yet, and helped Jemma lift the 084 onto it and push the whole thing into the middle of the lab. They locked the trolley into place and scattered around the room, quickly gathering instruments. A couple pairs of tweezers were used to open the bag and uncovered the dull silver metal of the 084, neither willing to touch it.

Thinking the scientist were distracted, she tried to make a silent retreat. No such luck, Simmons called her back before she could get out the door.

“Skye, wait.” Jemma’s light voice called out.

With a purely mental sigh, Skye turned back. Waiting to see what she wanted.

“I’m so sorry, but with the readings Fitz gathered, I have a better idea of the make-up of the 084 and need to run a few more tests.” She apologised.

Skye reflexively scowled. She had had enough of being poked and prodded since joining the team. And yes, some of that was her own fault, it had been her idea to stage that fight in LA. But the intake blood draws had been excessive, and Jemma had run a battery of tests before the team had decided to crash the party with a spray of bullets. She narrowed her eyes at the other woman, trying to judge how much wriggle room there was. A single raised eyebrow shouting _bring it_ was answer enough. “Fine.” She huffed, returning to her seat at a lab table out of Fitz’s way.

It was the work of only a few minutes for another three vials of blood to be filled and a small band-aid to be placed over her newest needle mark. At the rate she was going she was going to more closely resemble a pincushion than a person.

“It won’t take long for the tests to run.” Simmons said as she wrote tiny precise letters onto the vials.

Skye pulled out her phone, a quick message to Freya made sure the AI would scrub any of the more interesting genetic or biological markers from the results before they reached Simmons. As far as SHIELD would ever be concerned, her tests would come back clean, and any _actual_ points of concern would be sent to Betty to look into. With that done a couple of rounds of candy crush would fill the time nicely now that no more bullets were flying.

= + =

Coulson let himself into the cockpit. He had always enjoyed watching Melinda fly. Her absolute concentration and confidence were alluring. He quietly lowered himself into the co-pilot's seat and waited for her to reach cruising altitude. Once they had levelled off he turned the communication system to SHIELD's encrypted frequency.

"SHIELD HQ this is Command 606 Proper. Over." He spoke into the mouthpiece.

" _Go ahead Command 606 Proper. Over."_ A woman quickly responded.

"We have had to make an emergency exit from Peru. Returning to US airspace. Please advise. Over" He waited.

_"Understood. Is the 084 in your possession? Over."_ Her response crackled slightly on the 's's.

"It's on board and contains a Tesseract fuel cell. So...there's that. Over." He knew his snark probably wouldn't translate on the long distance channel. Especially to someone who didn't know him, those that did would be expecting it and there was a whole binder dedicated to emergency response plans in the event that Coulson’s snark was missing.

" _Copy. You are a go for priority check-in guidance through restricted airspace. Safe travels. Out."_ The woman apparently completely missed the subtext of his previous message, but priority travel through restricted space was good.

He replaced the mouthpiece and cycled back through the channels to the usual air traffic control frequencies with a sigh. "Top speed’s a priority May. Obviously."

The only response he got was a single eyebrow quirked in irritation. He didn't have to tell her how to do her job.

"Right. Sorry." He deflated slightly, the last of the leftover tension from the gun battle leaving his body. The adrenalin crash was going to be bad once he properly stopped. "I know you didn't want to see combat. I apologise for that."

She continued to pretend to ignore him, her eyes trained on the fluffy white clouds and aquamarine sky they were sailing through. Her silence was only an indication of her acceptance that shit went sideways when working with or for SHIELD. If she was truly annoyed, he would hear about it, just as he would hear about any change in her willingness to see combat.

"Do you need anything else before I go check on the device fuelled by evil that's currently sitting in our cargo hold?" Coulson asked, face completely straight.

May flicks a switch above her head without looking away from her instruments.

He waits another few heartbeats. "This was fun." He gets up and walks out. Even for May that was a very non-verbal interaction.

= + =

Skye was getting tired of the technobabble that swirled through the highly filtered air of the laboratory like a migraine inducing insect swarm. The science duo's words were tripping over themselves and each other. Hardly leaving space for interpretation and response.

Something Fitz said finally jumped out of the maelstrom. "Are you seeing this? It's alive."

Skye straightened in her seat with interest. "Alive?" She went unnoticed. They had effectively been ignoring her since her results had come back clear. The only reason she hadn’t escaped the overly filtered lab air was that the true results were telling a very different story and wanted to learn more. So far that hadn’t worked out too well for her, everything they had been discussing was around how it could have gotten into the Temple, rather than what it actually was and how dangerous it was.

"I'm reading those radionuclides you mentioned, but they don't match any known isotope." Simmons continued to talk, wonder creeping into her voice to replace the fear that had been predominant. Only having subconsciously heard what her partner in mad science had said.

"I'm getting temporal matches, but even those are shifting. I didn't think that was even possible." Fitz's frantic movements finally ground to a stop in confusion. The readings he was getting broke more than a few laws of physics and he wasn't sure where to go from here in analysing the artefact.

"It's not. At least as we understand thermodynamics." Skye put in. “Which really? Thor and Foster already blew that out of the water. We only really know what we _don’t know._ ”

Skye's words finally broke through into the conscious minds of the SHIELD scientists and they turned to look at her, matching expressions of disbelief on their faces. At their expressions Skye broke into delighted laughter.

"What? Just cause I'm a high school drop-out I can't know physics?" She grins at them just as Coulson walks in.

"Generally, I have found the answer to that question to be no, although I do know of at least one example of it not being relevant." He responded to the rhetorical question causing Skye to transfer her smile to him, she positively beamed. "Have you made any progress?" He asked the room at large. If Skye was keeping up enough to astound FitzSimmons, she could give her opinion as well.

"Not to worry, the device is stable," Simmons assured her boss. "Not that it couldn't explode at any minute, especially if exposed to rapid changes in temperature of a high velocity object, say a bullet." She increased the volume at the end of the sentence so that Ward, who had followed Coulson as far as the cargo hold, could hear her.

Ward sent a scowl in her direction for the obvious dig at his earlier treatment of Fitz.

"Good." With the assurance of at least a small level of safety from the nuclear device his outlooked brightened considerably. “Anything else?”

“I think it’s more stable than you think Jemma.” Skye broke in, pausing as she ran her words back through her own head to make sure they made sense, once she had she nodded to say she stood by them “It’s not just Gamma that it’s putting off.” She had had some time to go over what had happened while touching the blue crystals. Without the terror of the initial touch, she had realised that she had felt the vibrations that had been missing while having her out-of-body experience. “It’s giving off a tiny amount of Zero Matter as well.”

Fitz and Simmons blinked at her in astonishment. More interestingly, Coulson almost flinched at her words. “How do you know?” He asked, a guarded expression on his face.

“It effects the temperature around any source and interferes with electrical signals, I could hear the feed back on a couple of Fitz’s doohickies. I think it’s a good thing though.” She added.

Coulson’s wall broke at that, a fierce frown darkening his expression in a way she hadn’t seen yet. “How is zero matter a good thing?”

“Zero matter reacts with gamma radiation to neutralise it. Ergo more stable.” She shrugged, not really having the vocabularty to match Fitz or Simmons in the science department, but it was enough to reassure Coulson.

“We’ll, um, look into it.” Simmons spoke up, turning to Fitz for agreement which was given with a quick nod.

“Good. Keep me informed.” Coulson left. He had a plane full of Peruvian Military Police to deal with after all. "Is everyone all right?" He asked one of the soldiers sitting against the bulkhead.

"Banged up but alive sir." The man, a sergeant 3rd class, assured him in broken English. "Thank you for the extraction."  
"But we lost a lot of good men." Camilla came up behind him.

He turned to look at her. "We'll make sure the rest of you get home safe." He assured her.

"Are we safe?" Camilla asked, turning to look into the lab where Simmons, Skye, and Fitz were crowded around the holotable talking. "On a plane with that? There's a PMP airfield in Iquitos, it's only a short distance..."

Coulson had started shaking his head before she had gotten even halfway through her proposal. "My team tells me it’s relatively safe. Still, we're burning as fast as we can for a SHIELD containment facility."

Camilla turned her head just enough that Coulson couldn't see her face, that was not what she wanted to hear.

"There's no safer place for us to go." He thought her averted face was fear that she didn’t want to show in front of her men or him.

"Sir?" A different soldier politely interrupted their conversation. "If I may? You have anything to drink around here?" His English was much better than the first soldier Coulson had spoken too. A lieutenant by his insignia.

"Upstairs. I think you'll find it quite comfortable up there." Phil pointed him in the direction they would want.

Together he and Camilla got her men moving stiffly up the stairs. Pulled muscles and fatigue exerting themselves now that the adrenaline from earlier had worn off.

"I still want that tour you mentioned." Camilla smiled at him once they were alone.

"I know you do." He smiled back. He was about to lead her out of the cargo hold when shouting caught his attention.

"I did explain in great detail, exactly what I meant using the Queen's bloody English!" Fitz's shout carried through the closed glass doors.

Camilla and Coulson turned towards to noise in time to see Ward pointing a finger at the other man. In the hubbub of getting the Peruvians moving, Coulson had missed the Specialist joining the three in the lab. "I use normal English! Words like _duck!_  or _run!_ or _MIGHT BLOW US TO PIECES_!" Ward poked his finger into the air at each exclamation, obviously wanting to poke Fitz in the chest and only just refraining.

Coulson palmed the control the open the door. The aggressive argument coming through crystal clear without the doors dampening the sound.

"Oh! Well! Congratulations Agent Ward. You managed to string three words together in a sentence. I'm trying to tell you..." Fitz was yelling at the same time as Ward shouted over him.

"Don't understand anything you're saying!"

The two men standing across the holotable from each other while Simmons and Skye stood to one side, letting the boys hash it out while they compared notes on other testosterone filled disagreements they had seen, or heard about, in their respective times working in male dominated fields.

"Do we have a problem?" Coulson cut in. His voice firm but calm, stopping the shouting matching in its tracks.

They glared at each other before Ward finally spoke. "No, sir." He ground out. "Just working on our communication."

Skye snorted in amusement, if that's what he called communication she hated to see what he called them not communicating... She really needed to rethink that whole ‘not concussed’ thing…

"Not everyone was prepared for a firefight." He finished, ignoring her.

"We got out, didn't lose anyone, saved a few of theirs. I'd say we did all right. Anything else?" Coulson looked at all of them as he spoke. Not really expecting any of them to volunteer anything. He should have been more surprised than he was when Skye raised her hand. He had spent many a long year dealing with Barton after all. It was only as he thought this that he saw the parallels he hadn't wanted to admit to himself he had observed between the hacker and the archer.

"Uh, yeah. I have a small question." She lowered her hand to face height and held her thumb and index finger half an inch apart to demonstrate how little her question was. "Because I've been feeling like the tag-along, hayseed rookie. But now, I get the sense that Ward doesn't know which one is Simmons and which is Fitz." She pointed at each scientist as she spoke as if to demonstrate that _she_ knew which was which. "And they've seen even less gunfire than me, and I'm not a rocket scientist, but is this your first mission together?" If she hadn’t already known, the slightly sheepish looks Simmons and Fitz exchanged told her she was close if not right on the money. Coulson and Ward continued to give their best impersonations of robots.

An awkward silence settles across them all until Simmons coughs. "No, of course not. It's our second." The end of her sentence rose as if questioning herself.

"I was your first? That's sweet." Skye's insincerity practically dripped off the words.

"You're amuse?" Ward turned on her, still amped up from the argument with Fitz and looking for somewhere to direct the energy.

"I'm terrified." She shot back. "I am in way over my head, but I have been on this team just as long as any of you." The words rang with honesty. Actually, it was probably the most honest thing she had said since meeting them, tesseract energy and an in-experienced SHIELD team were not thing she wanted to be dealing with. "I might as well be Team Captain." She funnelled her fear into fatalistic humour.

Simmons light scoff is the only sound in the deathly silence.

"I was only joking," Skye pouted, "but maybe that's not a bad idea, because these guys do _not_ like each other." Skye waggles a finger between Fitz and Ward, faux whispering to Coulson.

"This isn't about that." Ward barks. "I'm a specialist. Today, I could have eliminated the enemy threat myself if I was working along. But, I had a non-combat ready agent who tried to argue..."

"Whoa, whoa, wait. You work alone?" Fitz cut in, sort of proving Skye's point of them not getting along.

This time Simmons got in on the action. "So typical. Who do you think designs your equipment?" She takes a stand next to her lab partner. The need to defend the science stronger than the wish to say out of the measuring contest.

"Or the polymers for your weaponry?" Fitz adds.

The three of them fall back into bickering. Skye uses their distraction to sidle up beside Coulson.

"See them proving the point I just made?" She asks him, without taking her eyes of group arguing on the other side of the room.

The team's discontent finally cracked Coulson's bland agent mask, just. "You're not wrong.” He pitched his voice to be heard over the argument without needing to shout, a handy trick he had picked up from an otherwise useless officer in his army days. “We still need to iron out the kinks." He told her before addressing the room. "But Ward, you can speak six languages. Simmons, you have two PhDs in fields I can't pronounce, Fitz, you _are_ a rocket scientist, and Skye I dread to think what skills your hiding. So work it out." He left before he had to put up with any more of their arguing. He owed Camilla a tour after all and she had wandered off early into the disagreement.


	7. Part 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little later in the day than normal, but it's still my friday.  
> I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/ Holiday season. Anyone with me in Aus a the moment, please stay safe and hydrated in this heat.

It had been a very long time since Skye had felt as alone as she did after the argument. Ward retreated to a book in the lounge, obviously not interested in talking to anyone. Coulson was off with Reyes somewhere, doing god knows what. May hadn't left the cockpit since they had taken off. And while Fitz and Simmons had returned to work in the lab, Skye felt like a third wheel watching them work. They had their patterns established and without giving away more about her experience than she was comfortable with, she would not be able to help them understand the 084.

Skye retreated to her bunk. This was the first time since joining Violet and James that she had worked alone. Having to constantly be on guard about how much she said, about what she did, it felt like being back in the system. When opening herself up to the people around her, even those who had been nice and she thought she could trust, always ended in her hurt and alone again.

 _Even if they abandon you, James will always be there._ She reminded herself, _and we will find Violet_. She tried to convince herself, with little success. She knew that with each day that passed the likelihood of finding her best friend alive shrunk. The only thing keeping her going was that Asgardians were hard to kill.

She pulled her hula-girl of its shelf and flicked the skirt to make it sway. Remembering the day James had bought it for her.

They had been on Lānaʻi, Hawaii for an information gathering job. A source in D.C. had suspected that Hydra had a server farm tucked into one of the little island's old plantations. It had taken the two of them three days to track down the server and steal the data and plant a backdoor into the system so that Freya could monitor their activity. After, James had taken her into Lanai City for a short holiday. The closest thing they had come to a honeymoon. They had spent the afternoon of the second day wandering through the market place and James had bought her the cheap little toy as a memento.

Skye smiled at the memory, those had probably been some of the happiest days of the happiest years of her life. Hopefully, Vi going missing was just a pause of that, rather than an ending. She rolled over to watch the slowly darkening sky outside her window.

She had been laying there, absently flicking the grass skirt to make her dance, half dozing and lost in thought for some time when someone quietly nocked on her door. Loud enough to be heard over the soft thrum of the engines but not so loud that it would have woken her if she had been asleep.

"Yeah?" She sat up, running a hand through her messy hair trying to straighten it.

The door cracked open to show Coulson on the other side. "Can you come to my office please." He left before she could answer, leaving her door open to allow a splash of golden light to fall into the space.

With a sigh she pushed herself up from the bed. The promised, or threatened depending how you looked at it, conversation from that afternoon was apparently upon her. There was no sense in trying to delay it further.

She hadn’t had reason, or opportunity, to go into Coulson’s office yet, but it wasn’t hard to find. A second spiral staircase ended at a small landing with three doors. Two closed, and one open. Skye nocked on the open door and stepped through into a sizeable, for a plane, room with a solid wood desk dominating the space. Coulson was sitting behind the desk, a tablet sitting on its surface lighting his face in a slightly creepy manner. He waved her into one of the two comfortable upholstered chairs that were obviously meant for visitors.

They sat and watched each other until the light from the tablet dimmed and eventually turned off from disuse. Finally, Coulson sighed.

“I had to fight to get you on this team. Agents May and Ward both called me a few choice names for offering you a place with us.” He held up a hand when she tried to break in. “I have a history of rooting for the underdog and while it has not steered me wrong so far, there is a first time for everything. So, tell me why this is not that time?” When he finished speaking, he lent back in his chair. Both verbally and non-verbally giving her the floor. A chance to explain herself.

Skye bit her lip, trying to come up with something that he would accept about why she had touched the 084, without revealing her unique…. gifts. “I, um, I don’t really have anything to say. I can’t explain why I did it.” The words that came out of her mouth were a version of the truth. Something she had learnt from hanging out with someone who was a literal walking lie detector, was that a half truth was easier to both sell and remember, than some made up story. So always start there.

“What does that mean?” Coulson sat forward. No trace of annoyance or scepticism in his voice.

“When I looked at it, there was this _need,_ I guess, to touch it. Fitz warned me not too and I knew I shouldn’t. We had no idea what it was. We still don’t. But I had to touch it.” She floundered slightly, hands moving in circles, trying to pluck words from the air to described a feeling that defied description

His lips pursed slightly, more in thought than disbelief. “What then?”

Skye pulled in a deep breath and held it for long seconds. Coming to a decision about what to tell him, she slowly breathed out and looked away, her eyes settling on the back of a wooden photo frame that was perched on the corner of his desk. She didn’t think she could describe what had happened _and_ look at him at the same time. “It was something from a nightmare. I was just me. No, that doesn’t make sense. I was just my mind. No body or anything, at the time I didn’t realise I was missing it, or should have one” She paused, trying to picker her words, realising that she could really say anything at this point without giving away the game. At least when it came to those long horrifying moments. “And I was being thrown around like in the middle of a tornado.” She stopped again, trying to stop hearing that first voice from the void that sent shivers down her spine, now that she had a spine to shiver again. Once she had calmed her heartbeat and the tremors in her hands had dissipated, she started again. “There were two voices, they were talking nonsense. Something about a library and a nebula. And there was someone else crying and a woman screaming. I think it was me. I think I was the one screaming. Then I was back in my body in the temple.” She felt tears gathering in the corners of her eyes and blinked rapidly to try and clear them. “It felt like my mind was being ripped apart again and again.” Scrubbing a hand across her face she fell silent. Nothing she had said was particularly useful.

Coulson struggled to keep his face locking in its calm, unreadable default expression. Below that his mind was in turmoil. Hearing her describe her experience was horrifying, the catches where she struggled to verbalise something that was outside the normal realms of human experience caught at his heart in a way he wasn’t expecting.

“Any physical side effects?” He already had the medical report from Simmons concluding that there were no detectable signs of Skye’s experience, but in his long years with SHIELD he had learnt to take all second-hand reports, particularly those around exposure to an 084, with a grain of salt. As personal SOP if possible, he always followed up with the person who had actually gone through the event.

Skye took a long minute to response. Mentally checking for and cataloguing any physical changes. She shook her head. As far as she could tell everything was where and how it was supposed to be.

“If that changes you are to tell me ASAP.” He said before dismissing her.

Skye escaped back down the stairs. Stepping into the golden light of the lounge she decided that going back to her bunk to huddle in misery, missing James, was not what she wanted to do. Spotting Ward reading on a couch in the far corner, she wandered over to him. Maybe now would be a good time to start building that relationship? She swings by the bar, grabs a couple bottles of beer and approaches him.

"Hunger Games?" Skye jokingly asked, startling the agent.

"Matterhorn." Ward looked up briefly before returning to his book. "One of a hundred books my S.O. gave me that I'm just getting around to." He said to the page he was reading.

Skye curled herself into the armchair next to him, letting her silence speak for itself.

"S.O. Supervising Officer." He answered. Looking up again and closed the book, slipping a finger in to hold his place.

"Got it." She clicker her fingers at him. "Hackers have lingo too, but I'll pick yours up." She smiled at him. "I feel like you and me?" She indicated them both with an irreverent finger wave. "Wrong foot. Can I buy you a drink?" She holds a bottle of beer out to him.

Ward cracks the smallest smile in recorded history, but accepts the drink. He abandons the book on the low, glass coffee table.

Skye takes a sip of her own drink and clears her throat, giving him a chance to crack the seal on his own drink and take a sip. "I know you don't want me here. You think that what I believe in, freedom of information, puts people in danger. But the best way to fight oppression is knowledge and the best way to educate the people is to stop the suppression of information. Take Peru for example. The people have organised for the first time in decades. Thousands of suffering people who have never met uniting over a common idea? That's mind-blowing."

She stops to allow that to sink in. Even knowing that it went against the very tenants of Hydra's beliefs, fighting against the suppression of the people was _meant to be_ what he was working for.

"And I didn't want to bring it up before, but that's what the Rising Tide is all about." She finished.

“Okay…” he said slowly, as if unsure about what he was agreeing with.

“Usually one person doesn’t have all of the solution. 100 people, each with 1% of the solution, together they get it done. But to be able to do that they need to know that the other 99 people are out there.” She lent forward, her elbows resting on her knees as she gesticulates. Her voice empassioned. “I think that’s beautiful, people coming together for a common cause.” She allowed a smile to spread across her face.

“And you think the internet is that solution?” He asked, scepticism dripping from his voice.

“Of course. It’s a way for the people to talk, unrestricted. To find each other.” She waved her bottle through the air, illustrating a coming together, a unity, emphasising her point.

“You and I see the world very differently.” Ward said, uneffected by her conviction.

“You think I’m naïve, because you assume that I’ve only seen bad things happening through a computer screen. I may have never been in a war zone before today, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never seen the darker parts of humanity.” She took swallowed a large mouthful of her drink to give herself some time to calm down.

Ward finished off his own beer and stretched to place the empty bottle on the table. Lifting him arm, moved his jacket away from his side revealing a dark red stain on his otherwise white button down.

“Wha?.. Did you get shot?” Skye yelped.

Ward looked down at the half dry stain and shrugged. “Skin deep. Nothing to worry about.” He settled his jacket, hiding the wound.

“Has Simmons looked at it yet?” Skye stood and tried to push the jacket off his shoulders. She had spent the last five years in close quarters with two people who preferred to ignore injuries rather than get treatment. Over the years it had become second nature to jump on any tiny sign of injury.

“Said it don’t worry about it.” He tried to wrench his clothes back on without success and gave up after only a moment.

Skye managed to get his shirt tails untucked and the long, angry looking gouge on his flank exposed. He winced in response to her poking a finger around the edges of the inflamed skin.

“No wonder you were pissed at Fitz.” She said absently.

“I wasn’t pissed.” He growled, giving a good impression of someone who was pissed. “I was trained to be the whole solution. To eliminate variables.”

As she inspected the injury, Ward took note of the other people in the room. Three of the Peruvian soldiers were talking quietly over a hand of poker, glasses of whiskey ignored at their elbows. A fourth man was reading one of the American Mechanic magazines that Fitz had left out, he had been on the same page since Skye had joined Ward on the couch.

“And today they aren’t adding up.” He muttered to himself.

The engines changed pitch a second before the plane tipped. The change in direction pulled Skye from her examination. “We’re changing direction.” She looked around, as if expecting to find a reason for the change within the cabin.

He nodded, using her distraction to straighten his shirt, pulling further away from her in the process. “We’ve entered restricted airspace, so we have to follow a certain flightpath, regulation.” He explained. “This plane is capable of fully automated flight, but May has to be on the stick herself tonight.”

“You have an S.O., May has to be on the stick. Lots of good lingo on this plane.” She smirked at him, poking fun at the over abundance of jargon.

“Yeah.” He sighed, “we just can’t seem to understand each other.”

"It will probably just take more time." Skye tried to smile as if she believed what she was saying, but it was clear to both of them that she was clutching at straws. Everyone on their team was just so different, it would take something catastrophic to bring them together and neither wished for that to be the catalyst of team cohesion.

Skye let the conversation die. Getting up she wandered into the kitchen and grabbed a couple more bottles of beer for herself and Ward, more for something to do and give her a chance to check up on the room’s other occupants, than a real desire for more alcohol. On her way back to her seat, she passed one of the open drinks to Ward. Sitting she took an absent sip of the cold brew, watching Ward watching the men.

It doesn't take long for Ward to catch her looking. When he meets her eye, he tips his head in the direction of the soldiers and waves his bottle, obviously illustrating what she had also noticed. For military men on stand down, they sure weren't drinking enough to keep up the charade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to look me up I'm also on tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/quartzcelticas).


	8. Part 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A day early but it's done and I want to get it posted.

Coulson was working through the reports and paperwork for the day’s events. Not the smoothest a mission had ever gone, but also not the worst. There was that one time in the Outer Hebrides with that sheep, he shuddered at the thought, nothing would ever replace it as most off the rails mission.

He had just started on the AAFI-EF when Camilla lightly knocked and poked her head into the room.

“Am I disturbing you?” She smiled, knowing full well she was disturbing him and not caring a bit.

“Please come in.” He stood and stepped out from behind the table. Smiling.

The click of the door latching was loud in the small room. She started a slow circuit of the room, Coulson lent against the front of his desk to watch her examine his collection of early spy tech. He had been collecting since he was a little boy when his great aunt gave him one of the SSRs first tie-pin cameras. Camilla stopped in to examine one of his favourites.

"First walkie-talkie wristwatch. 1936, Poland." He told her. "They only made 20 I think. Still works." He kept all of his things in working order, you didn't know when it might come in handy, and it had also been a gift.

"I forgot you're a sentimentalist, Phillip." She moved onto the next object, trying to pick this one up.

"Yeah, most of its glued down." He lied, he would _never_ let _glue_ near any of his collection.

She abandoned her perusal and moved back towards him, a seductive smile blooming across her face. "Romanticising history, hm?" She asked as she stepped well inside his personal space. Her chest almost touching his shoulder.

He added a half an inch of distance between them, his shoulders tightening a minuscule amount, as much as they could before his conscious mind stopped them. "There was an elegance of things back then." He kept his face and stance open, a large part of his job was making nice with the locals.

Camilla didn't move any closer, but she didn't back off either. She simply lent a hip against the table and practically purred. "There we agree."

He was beginning to get irritated by her continued advances and allowed it to show in the shortness of tone in his response. "With everything around us changing so quickly, it doesn't hurt to have a few touchstones to the past." He glanced at the photo frame on his desk that was positioned such that she could not see its subject. When he continued his voice had softened again, the presence of that photo had brought him comfort. "Reminds me what's important." It was almost a whisper.

Camilla saw the glance and scoffed slightly having guessed the subject of the hidden image. "The last thing I want to do is relive days gone by." Her voice dropped back into its seductive purr. "A few nights maybe." She slid closer so that this time they were touching. The invitation clear.

"I see what you're doing." His voice was low, the tiniest hint of threat hidden under the words.

"I am reminiscing." She finally took a proper step back.

Camilla had pushed as far as she could without Coulson taking offence. It was clear that the invitation would not be accepted. A change since last time they had worked together.

"This plane is such a step up from the RV we used to work out of when you were stationed in Cusco." Her tone had returned to that of one old friend catching up with another after a long time apart, friendly but slightly distant, waiting to see if the connection was still there.

"I don't remember much working." Coulson laughed, finally allowing his shoulders to fully relax.

The light ringing bell of her laughter joined his.

"Share a drink? For old times sake?" She asked, walking to few steps towards the small bar that was tucked into one corner of the room. "You must have some good stories to share since we saw each other last?"

"I think," he closed the distance between them, "that Ward already knows you'll have to eliminate May from the equation to have a chance, which gives him about 20 seconds to get to her first." He lunged the final few feet between them, pushing his shoulder into her stomach, knocking the air from her lungs.

Her right fist landed a solid blow to the side of his face. A cut opening in his eyebrow, sending blood into his left eye, partially blinding him.

Growling Coulson grabbed her left arm as it shoots out to follow up the first blow. He used her momentum to swing them both around. Keeping a grip on the wrist he forced her left arm around and behind her back, using it to control her movements.

She kicked back trying to wrestle free.

Using the arm against her back, he slammed her into and across the table, sending papers, pens and his photo frame flying. Pressing his chest into her back, he kept her pinned against the wood.

Her right-hand scrabbles across the table top, looking for something to weaponize.

Coulson grabbed a small metal tube that looks like a high end pen and pressed it against her thigh. The taser in disguise shot 50,000 volts intro her body.

Her muscles contracting and spasming from the electricity,  had her on the floor in seconds. Rendering her unconscious.

Coulson pushes away from her slumped form, grumbling to himself. They had been allies once. Friends. Quickly he rounded the desk and opened the bottom drawn, it had a handful of zip ties mixed in with the other office detritus that never really had a proper home. Efficiently he bound her hands behind her back and dumped her on the sofa.

Leaning down, he picked up the photo frame from the floor and brushed a few imaginary pieces of lint from the glass. Staring up at him with the bluest eyes he had ever seen was his reason for a lot of the changes in his life. Changes Camilla, a woman he had considered a friend, would never learn about and probably not understand if she did. He tucked the wooden frame safely into the middle desk draw, better to have it out of sight but secure while unknowns were on board. That done he left his office.

Time to find out how the rest of his team had gotten on.

= + =

Skye added a smile to her face and a swing to her hips. She sashayed over to the lone soldier and perched on the arm rest of the chair across from him.

"Soo, where in Peru are you from?" She asked him, pulling his attention from the magazine he hadn't read a word of.

Once he was looking at her, she slipped down into the seat. Leaning forward just enough for her shirt to gape and give him an excellent view. For too many vital seconds he was distracted. Ward launched himself over the back of one of the chairs of the largest of the poker players. With surprise on his side, he was able to smash the man's head against the table, scattering cards everywhere and knocking him out cold.

The other two poker players instinctively pushed away from the violent burst of movement. In normal seats they would have tumbled over the backs and gained a precious few inches. In the bolted down seats of the plane, one hardly moved at all and the other fell over the back and winded himself with the strength of his surprised retreat.

The soldier who kept his seat threw himself onto Ward's back once he got over the momentary shock. The two men grappled. Each attempting and failing to gain an upper hand.

At the sound of the initial struggle, the guy Skye had distracted whipped around and out of his seat to see the first of his countrymen go down under Ward's attack. Skye knew the second he realised that she had taken him in. He spun on his heel and with a growl run the few steps between them and threw a haymaker at her head. She ducked under and away, falling over the arm of the chair. He followed her over and got one of his hands around her neck.

He squeezed.

She fought.

Skye wasn't going to let some jack-booted thug get the best of her just because he thought his extra weight and training had her beat.

Skye kicked up as he loomed over her. The toe of her heavy boot found its mark in his right iliofemoral ligament. His leg collapsed under his weight as the ligament connecting his hip and femur gave out. He crashed down on top of her, pushing the last of the air from her body. His grip spasmed and he let go. Skye forced a knee up between them and using it and a prejudicial use of her powers, pushed him off her and away. A second burst of vibrations rattled his head silly. Gasping for breath she clambered to her knees, trying to see how Ward was doing.

Grant was across the room still grappling with the second soldier. As she watched Grant had him in a head lock and the Peruvian was slowly going blue and losing grip with reality.

That left one unaccounted for.

Still wheezing, Skye stood using the back of a chair for support. She started to turn, looking for the last combatant. Before she could find him, he found her. Two large, camo covered arms wrapped around her chest and lifted her off her feet. The sudden movement made an undignified squeak come out of her mouth drawing Ward's attention. Still containing the final struggles of his opponent all he could do was watch.

The guy that had grabbed her started to try and crush her rib cage. It wasn't the most original attack strategy and the first one they taught how to break in any rudimentary self defence class, something that Vi and James had both sent her too and taught themselves when time allowed.

She grabbed his wrist before going limp, forcing him to sag. Feeling his weight start to give, Skye drove her boot heel into the dick’s knee. With a wet crunch she felt his kneecap give out and he dropped her.

His scream echoed through the enclosed space.

Once again gasping for breath, why did they keep trying to asphyxiate her? Skye looked up, the room was still once more.

On the other side of the cabin, Ward had finally finished with his guy and was standing watching her. Their eyes met and they were still staring at each other moments later when Coulson came tripping down the stairs in his haste to make sure they were ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting tiny snippets of my other WIP which is a Phil/Clint pairing on tumblr if anyone is interested. You can fine me [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/quartzcelticas) and the WIP is Operation: Harmony.


	9. Part 9

Coulson stumbled to a halt at the base of the stairs. There was little evidence of the altercation in the space lounge, a tumbler of amber liquid had been splashed across the carpet, the deck of cards were across and under the furniture, and Fitz's small collection of magazines were crumpled and torn from where Skye had tumbled onto them.

"Is everyone OK?" He asked, panting, sweeping worried eyes over his people.

Ward had pulled open the gash in his side, and blood was slowly seeping into his shirt, nothing life threatening but something to be mindful of. He also had what would become a spectacular shiner blooming over his right eye from a lucky, but hard, hit.

At first glance Skye looked ok, just some rumpled hair and clothes. On closer inspection a ring of bruises were forming around her neck from the attempted strangling. When she tried to answer that she was fine, all that emerged was a croak. _That's getting old,_ she thought.

"We're fine." Ward answered for them both, while she held a thumb up it the universal sign of agreement. "Skye held her own." He gave her a nod of acknowledgement obviously not having expected her to be able to defend herself.

She painfully cleared her throat, "I was living alone in a van." The fact that he had underestimated her stung for no good reason. She had purposefully left out any martial abilities so being annoyed that he didn't expect her to be able to fight didn't make sense. A scowl set itself across her face.

"They'll need to gain flight control. Ward secure May and the cockpit" Coulson ordered.

Ward was off even as Coulson was still talking. As close to a dead run as he could get in the confined spaces.

 “Skye help tie these men..." Coulson continued before she cut him off.

"Uh boss?" Skye had wandered a few steps closer to where the senior agent was standing, giving her a perfect view into the command centre which he could not see into. She turned and hurried into the glass walled room and with a few taps of her fingers, brought one of the internal cameras onto the bigger middle screen.

Coulson stopped behind her and watched, horrified, as a soldier managed to get a hold of Fitz down in the lab. Simmons wasn't visible on the feed they were watching. Skye began flicking through the other cameras on board and found her in the process of pulling items off the shelves of one of the storage rooms, obviously looking for something.

"Lock her in." Coulson ordered Skye, worried that she was going to go back for Fitz. She started typing while he quickly tightened zip ties around the wrists of the unconscious Peruvian soldiers.

"Yep, ah ha, sure."

They watched as the door behind Simmons slammed closed silently on the CCTV. Jemma jumped at the sound turned and began pounding on the door. On the other screen the soldier pulled a tactical knife from his back pocket and pressed it to the struggling engineers throat. At the feel of cold metal Fitz froze.

Nobody threatened one of Phil's people and got away with it. Pulling up a few windows he opened the plane’s PA system and switched it to the lab only microphone, there was no point in helping Fitz if it distracted May and Ward in keeping control of the aircraft.

"This is Agent Coulson. Release my people and no harm will come to you. We have the rest of your team neutralised." He spoke slowly and clearly into the microphone. He didn't want there to be any misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

He set the system to allow them to hear anything said in the lab, but a button would need to be held for their voices to be transmitted.

"NO! You will give us control of this plane. We have your people and the weapon." The soldier shouted in heavily accented English.

Coulson turned to Skye, "Keep him talking. I'm going to try and talk some sense into Camilla." He strode from the room and back up the stairs.

"Okay." She said to the empty room. Hostage negotiation was not her forte, but she would try to keep the guy talking until Coulson got back. Pressing the mic button, she spoke. "What are you hoping to get from this? Is it something we can help with?"

The guy scowled at the sound of her voice, he knew she wasn't one of the senior agents, though not that she wasn't an agent period. He didn't want to talk to an underling and showed his displeasure by pressing the blade slightly harder into Fitz's neck. A bright drop of blood trickled from the broken skin. Skye watched as Fitz's face paled further.

"We can't help each other if we don't _talk_ to each other." She tried again.

"You Americans, swooping in and thinking you can take everything. It was ours!"  He was shouting as Coulson returned, half supporting half pulling a partially revived Commandant.

"Tell him to stand down Camilla." Coulson shook her slight.

Reminding Skye of a terrier with a rabbit, trying to elicit a response.

She glowered at him, staying silent. On screen the Peruvian had reverted to Spanish but was still ranting.

"We were allies. We had history. When did you decide to throw that away?” He asked, a hint of sadness in the back of his voice. Phil had seen so much betrayal during his time with SHIELD, but it was still reminiscent of a punch to the gut when it happened with someone he trusted.

"As soon as I saw your team." A sneer turned her ugly.

"We have control of the plane. You’re not going to get where ever it is that you want to go unless we let you." Coulson bluffed. He didn't know if May had held the cockpit or if Ward had been able to wrestle it back if she hadn't. All he was sure of was they were still on the same heading they had been before the scuffle had broken out.

Camilla fell back into glaring silently at them, while the soldier in the lab continued to shout. With an almost invisible huff, Coulson pulled an extra zip tie from his pocket and cuffed Camilla to one of the railings that ran along the walls.

 _Handy._ Skye thoughts with a completely inappropriate giggle. Coulson looked up at the noise, sending her a 'what the hell' face and she quickly tried to wipe her face clear of any expression, shrugging at him.  He turned back to Camilla, pulled a rag from his other pocket and non-too kindly shoved it in her mouth, gagging her.

The man holding Fitz hostage was getting more insistent and if the rest of the team didn't do something soon, she would have to. Fitz may not have been the most welcoming of the team, that award definitely went to Jemma or Coulson.

But Coulson was taking too long to act, and Ward hadn't returned.

The blood dripping down Fitz's neck was starting to run, staining the collar of his blue and white checked shirt red. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and loaded up the app Freya had concealed the plane's maintenance controls behind. Scrolling though the options she stopped on pressure control for the lower levels. The lab had its own oxygen flow and ventilation system to allow quarantine in case of biohazards. It was work of seconds to shut off the oxygen and open the ventilation to full. The pressure differential stripped the air out of the room in seconds.

The two men stumbled in the rush of fleeing air. The maelstrom pulled them apart, and the soldier dropped the bloodied knife to clutch at one of the benches, trying to keep his feet.

Skye bit her lip. She had to time this perfectly, not long enough and the thug would just attack Fitz again, too long and they would both end up with brain damage or dead.

"SKYE! What are you doing?!" Coulson demanded, finally having turned and seen what was happening downstairs.

She ignored him, counting the long seconds as the last of the air was evacuated. Fitz was the first to slump, losing his hold on consciousness. It was another long three seconds before the other guy passed out. The moment his head hit the ground, Skye shut off the ventilation and re-opened the oxygen flow, dialling it up to as high a rate as possible. Still ignoring Coulson, she released the magnetic lock on the door containing Jemma and turned on the PA for the whole lower levels.

"JEMMA! Get to Fitz, he needs oxygen!" Skye shouted down the line. She turned to face Coulson. "I am so sorry! It was all I could think of. Ward and May aren't here, and I wouldn't be a help in there even if I could get in and the last thing we need is you getting taken hostage." She started to ramble and then hyperventilate. She could have killed Fitz, she might had cause him irreparable harm.

When she collapsed to her knees Coulson followed her down and forced her head between her legs.

"Breathe." He ordered, his voice calm. He began counting.

He had reached his fourth around of 4s when Ward charged back into the room, gun drawn. They were half hidden behind the table where Skye had slumped.

"SIR? SKYE?" Ward came to a skidding halt when he spotted them under the lip of the table.

"May?" Coulson asked, keeping a comforting hand on her back.

"Secure. One enemy who had gained entrance, we were able to regain control." Ward reported.

"Good. Go down and finished security the lab." Coulson ordered.

Ward gave a brisk nod and was off again. This time at a more controlled pace. Coulson not having rushed off told him that the situation was at least partially under control and didn't warrant risking his own neck thundering down the stairs.

Coulson sat with her while slowly she regained a normal breathing pattern, her throat and lungs on fire, and her head pounding from the abuse and stress her body had taken in the last 12 hours. It was a struggle to raise her head, but she did it. Then promptly slumped sideways until she was leaning against Coulson's shoulder.

"Is Fitz ok?" She asked quietly.

"I don't know."

It wasn't what she wanted to hear but at least it was honest.

Ward eventually came back to find them in virtually the same place as when he had left only leaning against each other, exhausted.

"Simmons is patching Fitz up but she is concerned. Something about his blood oxygen. She wants him at a medical facility ASAP." Ward told them.

Skye hid her face in her hands. She knew this would be hard, but she never expected to _care_ about the people she would be lying too.

Coulson stood, brushing his pant legs down on his way up. "We are already burning for the Slingshot. They have a medical team on site. I'll make sure they are on stand-by. Can you move Reyes and her team to the holding room." Coulson held out a hand to help Skye up.

It was all she could do to stand and wobble her way to the closest chair. He left her there while he went off to make the arrangements to get Fitz the care Simmons seemed to believe he needed. Ward quickly grabbed a cold bottle of water from the bar and pressed it into her hands before he too was off to deal with the fall out.

Skye found herself alone. She curled herself up against the arm of the chair and sipped from the water. The cool liquid helped her throat and head. Letting the quiet and constant vibration of the engines put her to sleep.


	10. Part 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello All,  
> Hope you enjoy the last part of this story. I will be taking a break between this one and the interlude. I have a crazy February coming up and need to focus on work for a little while. The next interlude is mostly written and the next episode is done except for editing so I can start again in late February/early March depending on how things pan out.  
> Best,  
> Celticas

Once again Skye stood at the bottom of the Bus’ ramp, looking out over a sundrenched airfield. The moment they had pulled to a stop in front of a fleet of SHIELD personnel and vehicles, Jemma was jumping to lower the ramp and meet the medical team Coulson had organised.

During the long night Jemma had not moved from Fitz’s side. She had hardly acknowledged any of the team who had all come to check in. She had flat out ignored Skye. The rest of them were left to tend to each other and be looked over by another contingent of SHIELD medical after the first team had left with Fitz and Jemma.

Skye hoped to god that Fitz got better. Not to assuage her own guilt, nothing could help with that, but for Jemma who had been so warm and welcoming to the interloper. Simmons didn’t deserve to lose her best friend, not because of Skye.

Fitz had been transported to a waiting ambulance and hustled off within minutes. Skye suspected that Simmons would have carried him herself if it would have gotten him to care faster.

The team tasked with collecting the 084 were still in the lab. Skye had watched them for a while after medical had finished checking her over, but the sight of people who weren’t Simmons or Fitz moving around the young scientists’ domain was too discordant. She had quickly retreated, all the way out of the plane and into the glaring morning sun of a mid-summer New Mexican day.

Not that she was meant to know that that was where they were. All Coulson would say was they were heading for a SHIELD base. Freya was well entwined with the plane’s systems now and could provide Skye with all of the tracking data she could ever want.

The sun had moved significantly closer to its zenith when the noise of people working and talking died down behind her. The SHIELD red shirts trooped out, a swarm of bland, besuited drones. The two at the back of the group carried a matte black metal box between them. Carefully keeping it away from everyone and everything else.

 _The 084 has left the building._ Skye thought.

Coulson followed them out, making sure the item that had caused them so much trouble was actually off his plane. He stopped beside her and silently watched as the local agents loaded up and drove off.

They had disappeared behind a building before he spoke. “How are you doing with everything?” He didn’t turn to look at her, watching the horizon instead.

The violence didn’t bother her anymore. There were times you had to protect yourself or your team, sometimes that meant hurting or even killing. She didn’t like it, but she understood the necessity. It was the betrayal by people that were meant to be friends and allies that she was finding harder to process. Vi’s unique skill set meant that since she had started working in the shadier parts of the real world, not just the virtual, she had always known who was actually trustworthy. Even with all of the signs of a lie she had learnt over the years, she had completely missed this one.

Coulson at least had the excuse of being compromised by a previous relationship with Reyes and his seemingly innate need to see the good in people, not a great trait for a spy to have, but it made him an excellent _person_. But May and Ward had missed it to, although that was cold comfort.

“Skye?” Coulson broke into her thoughts bringing her back to the here and now.

“Oh, um.” She realised she had never answered his question. “Ok, I guess. Just worried about Fitz and Simmons.” She turned to look at him, blinking against the sun sports. He looked drawn, tired. The fine laugh lines around his eyes and mouth deepening in exhaustion, and a touch of sadness. Even after the long events of the day before, his suit was perfectly pressed, and he didn’t have a hair out of place. Giving the illusion of not having been affected by the betrayal.

Skye could see the droop in his shoulders though, and his vibrations were slower, sadder. “Has there been any news?” She asked.

“They’re still running tests. We should know more in another hour or two.” Coulson turned his sharp eyes on her. Cataloguing every bruise and scrape left exposed by the jeans and flannel shirt she hadn’t bothered changing out of.

She bit her lip, unsure what she wanted to say until she found her mouth already moving. “What exactly am I signing up for?” She asked, knowing he would think she was talking about joining SHIELD. She actually meant going undercover and lying to people she could see herself caring about.

“Front-row seats to the craziest show on Earth.” He quipped without his usually humour, to tired to put the sales pitch into it.

She sighed. “And not being able to trust anybody.” She had thought she had left that behind when she had skipped out on the foster system. “Reyes was your friend, maybe something more once, and she was willing to stab you in the back.” Her words were flat, tired. It had been a long six months, never mind the last 24 hours.

“Trust me, trust this team.” There was real passion and belief in his words until he caught a look at the extremely sceptical look that took over her face.

Then he laughed.

“In time then, maybe.” He amended.

“What happens with that 084 thing now?” She changed the subject rather than respond. One of her biggest worries was how easily she could see herself trusting Coulson. “Throw it down some deep, dark hole?” She joked, half-hearted.

“Actually, we shoot it into the sun. Slingshot protocol. A weapon like the 084 is too dangerous for any person or country to have. People like Reyes would always be after it.” He explained dead serious.

Skye pulled up short. Taking a step away from him horrified. Not only did that seem dangerous, shooting unknown materials into their star, but of bigger concern was that she had come across that term before. A year earlier one of the Hydra channels she monitored had talked about Slingshotting an item of interest. They had thought it was a cover term for Hydra’s research division and maybe it still was. Diverting objects from SHIELD and its ‘safe’ disposal methods into their own labs. There could be all sorts of things out there that SHEILD thought were destroyed, being used or researched.

“Wait, wh- what?” She stammered trying to gather her thoughts. “You shoot stuff into the sun?” She squeaked, covering her horror with surprise. “That’s totally crazy, is it safe?”

“Best way to keep us safe.” His eyes took on a look of concern, not completely buying the surprise, sensing something below it.

“No. I get its good to destroy these things. Trust me after touching that thing I want it gone. I meant is it scientifically safe? Sending things into the sun? Won’t that upset its balance or something?” Skye aired her first concern. Keeping the second well under wraps until she could look into it further and send the information to someone who could do something about it.

“I’m not a scientist Skye, you will need to talk to them. But we wouldn’t do it if it was going to make things worse.” He assured her.

Skye was still sceptical. It was well within the realms of possibility that Hydra had doctored the scientific analysis so that SHIELD would approve the protocol and then the bad guys could swoop in and take control of whatever they wanted. It even had a nasty ring of truth to it. If the 084s were never going to be shot into space, they couldn’t damage the sun’s equilibrium.

Chewing her lip, she had to resist the urge to look up and make sure the sun was still where it was supposed to be. The move may not give her deeper concerns away, but it would fucking hurt.

“What happened with Reyes?” Skye asked instead. Slightly apprehensive about what else she could learn.

“We aren’t going to disappear her.” He deadpanned. Leaving it hanging for a long second, trying to fool her into thinking that maybe that _was_ what they would do. “She is being held at one of our detainment facilities.” He relented. “I expect the Peruvian Government is already in the process of negotiating their release. She probably won’t see much, if any, jail time. But her whole unit will be flagged as unfriendly, so future teams will know to be cautious.” He explained.

It was reassuring and better yet, left a huge opening to poke fun at him.

“No,” she drawled, “I mean, what happened with _you_ and Reyes?” She smiled impishly, leaning hard on the ‘you’. It was fun to see him squirm, which he did. “You guys totally did it back in the day, right?” She crowed in delight.

He tried to stand on his dignity and deny it with a circumspect “Its classified.” But the red tips of his ears gave him away. He glared at her half-hearted before sighing and walking away. Smartly recognising a losing battle.

= + =

“Team meeting in the lounge.” Coulson’s voice was piped though the plane mid-afternoon. Skye rolled off her bed where she had been lounging since grabbing a shower and a nap. She meandered her way into the lounge by way of the kitchenette, preparing a pot of coffee for everyone before Coulson could brew any of his preferred sludge. With coffee pot and mug in one hand and a packet of black-and-white cookies in the other, she settled into a corner of the couch. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she cradled her hot mug between both hands and waited.

Ward was the next one in, coming up from the cargo bay where he had been working out _again_. May followed him upstairs, having been in conference with the aviation technicians about something, something aeroplane maintenance. They each collected a mug and poured themselves a drink from the pot, she got a nod of thanks from Ward for beating Coulson to the punch. Each of them doctored their drinks as desired after choosing a seat.

The man himself was the last to arrive. Slowly coming down from his office with a tablet in his hand.

“Good your all here.” He said when he finally looked up from whatever he was reading. He took the last armchair and accepted a steaming mug from May with a smile. He dropped his tablet in his lap and rubbed at his eyes with his free hand. “The latest report just came in from medical. Fitz is in a coma. They don’t know how long it will last and won’t know if there was any other damage done until he wakes up and tells them.”  He met each of their eyes before they continued. “SHIELD does have some extra tech they can use but would need permission from his medical proxy, which luckily is Simmons so they will get permission, but they won’t even ask until he has been under for over a week.”

It wasn’t the news any of them had hoped for but at least they weren’t completely out of hope.

“The 084 isn’t being launched until tomorrow afternoon and I want to see it go, so we will be staying here until that happens and hopefully by then we will know more. If you want to leave base tonight you can but there isn’t much close by.”

“Sir.” Ward acknowledged and left again.

Between moments May was gone from the room.

“Thanks for letting us know. If you talk to Jemma let her know we are thinking of them.” Skye said quietly, picks up her coffee and leaves. Needing to be moving.

= + =

The team were settling for the night. Simmons was still with Fitz in medical, Coulson had gone off base to run some errands, Ward was ensconced in a chair he had dragged outside into the setting sun with the next of his SO’s hundred must reads, and May had once again locked herself in the cockpit. Skye had a good idea about why the other woman was hiding. Three years ago, one of SHIELD’s best had vanished from the espionage game, until last week when she turned up as ‘only the pilot’ on this crazy-train of a team. Skye hadn’t had a chance to talk to her alone yet.

It was time to change that.

Armed with two cups of the special-order jasmine tea that she hoarded, Skye knocked on the closed cockpit door. Patiently waiting until she caught the quiet ‘come’ from inside. It took a bit of juggling to get the door open without spilling hot tea all over herself. With the awkward assistance of her elbow she git the door open and stepped inside. She nudged the door closed, handed over one of the mugs, and took a seat in the vacant co-pilot’s seat. The view out the windshield was breath-taking. They were facing North-West and there was just enough cloud cover for the left half of the sky to be painted with broad, vibrant brushstrokes of orange, red, and purple by the setting sun.

Skye waited until their tea was cool enough to drink to start talking. “We’ve crossed paths before, you know.” It wasn’t the best place to start, but there wasn’t really a _good_ place either.

May took a tiny sip of her tea, the tiniest hint of pleasure flickering in her eye at the flavour. Her next sip was larger.

Skye smiled lightly, pleased that May liked it. “With what I was doing before, I’d heard about a few SHIELD agents, both online and from people I know in places that SHIELD has worked. You were different. A tiny Asian woman kicking ass? That was awesome.” She spoke her next words carefully, they would be the ones to make or break this conversation, maybe the whole mission. “Then after Bahrain you vanished.”

May’s reaction was instant and violent. Almost half a cup of tea was splashed across the console. The mug hitting the ground with a hollow thunk. May was out of her chair, pulled Skye up, and slammed the younger woman into the wall before she could finish her sentence.

“You have no idea what your talking about.” May growled, hitting Skye against the wall again for emphasis.

“I was there. I know exactly what I’m talking about.” Skye broke in.

“How could you have been?” May demanded. Not loosening her hold. “You’re a hacker. You sit behind a computer screen and judge the rest of us.”

“That’s where I started, but I’ve been with Valkyrie for years.” Skye rushed out. Her body was still smarting from the last few days, the last thing she needed was more bruises.

Again, the response to her words was immediate. She was dropped, and May was suddenly on the other side of the room.

“You’re Rising Tide.” She spat, stunned at the turn the conversation had taken.

“No, I’m not.” Skye pushed herself away from the wall. “I’m Valkyrie. I know you know what that is. Natasha wanted to bring you in.” Skye took a single cautious step forward. “Then the shit-storm of Bahrain happened and you disappeared. I could never get the reason out of Natasha.”

“I wasn’t good anymore.”

“What?” It was Skye’s turn to be incredulous.

“I killed her!” May shouted.

Obviously, Skye didn’t know as much as she thought she did. “Who do you think you killed? A couple of gun running thugs? Sure, but that’s pretty par for the course.”

Skye’s sense of vibrations was lighting up. The other woman was shaking from a mix of adrenaline, shock, and fear.

“No, the little girl.” May whispered, pushing herself into the dark corner of the cockpit. Trying to fade into the shadows.

“May, no. Violet and I took down Eva and someone else killed Katya.”

“What?” May’s voice was softer, more confused.

Skye took the second step across the small space and lay a gently hand on May’s shoulder. “You spent most of that cluster fuck unconscious. Even if you had been awake to help, there was no good way out. I know exactly what happened in Bahrain May, and none of it was your fault.”

Silently they stood in the gathering darkness of night, staring at each other. The only light coming from the blanket of stars that were visible, the sun having set and the moon not yet risen. An in between time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next story will be my version of Bahrain!

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/quartzcelticas).


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